Page 1 of Monkey photo copyright debate

http://gawker.com/wikipedia-wont-take-down-macaque-selfie-because-the-mo-1616872553

TL;DR... Wikipedia has posted one of the selfies taken by a monkey which you've probably seen and read about in the past. The owner of the camera wants them to take down the image, claiming it's his copyright.

They claim that actually, it's the monkey's copyright because it was the animal that took the photos, and since monkeys can't claim copyright, they are free to use it!


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i actually agree with the photographer in this instance. He set up the shots deliberately so that the monkeys would take the pictures. It wasn't a happy accident. Many pro photographers get their assistants to hit the shutter button, who gets the copyright then?

Presumably then there will be some claims coming from whoever owns the land on which this monkey lives or we can even expect the even more mad PETA to surface demanding payments to some animal charity or other, let's say maybe PETA.

I doubt this is over as who owns the copyright for all the wildlife shots tripped by remote cameras.

Quote:
alfie noakes says...
"Many pro photographers get their assistants to hit the shutter button,"
That's actually much more prevalent in still life, room sets etc where the skill is in the building and lighting. Though in my time there were some lazy b'stards who'd leave the whole thing to the assistant and p*ss off down the pub.



Snaps

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My new Flash Fiction blog. All my own work
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I used to be with it, but then they changed what `it` was.
Now, what I`m with isn`t it, and what`s `it` seems weird and scary

This item was edited on Friday, 8th August 2014, 11:29

I used to be a still life photographer meself but never had an assistant! I worked for many photographers where me or another assistant took all the shots - including all the setup work but I was never too fussed about owning the copyright of a bunch of pictures of the latest Mfi monstrosity.

The article in the original post makes it sound like a 'happy accident', with the monkey stealing the camera and taking the picture.

I would have thought that the owner of the camera would hold copyright, regardless of who or what took the photo.

Isnt the point that he was selling the photo until they posted it and now he cant? in which case he is correct afaik

I wonder if this applies to things like animals tripping a beam to fire a flash?


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Ahem! ^^^

Quote:
Snaps says...
"I doubt this is over as who owns the copyright for all the wildlife shots tripped by remote cameras."



Snaps

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My new Flash Fiction blog. All my own work
500ish

---

I used to be with it, but then they changed what `it` was.
Now, what I`m with isn`t it, and what`s `it` seems weird and scary

Oops missed that!

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Now if it had been one hundred monkeys with a typewriter, who would then own the copywrite to the literary masterpiece produced 

its a world gone mad !