Evidently, the owner of the camera lost possession of his camera to that monkey/ape/macaque/toolazytolookitup. The animal took a selfie- totally by accident. Then the camera owner wanted to own the selfie (as in the trademark). Because it is a pretty cool looking simian(or not) and it would be great to humiliate it with memes and tee shirts. But the courts decided that since that animal couldn't OWN anything, let alone pay to register the trademark and deal with the trademark office (yes, I have), and if you are going to call it a "selfie" then it is totally the monkey's property just by common reasoning that the person/animal taking the selfie owns it, then the camera owner cannot trademark it. It was evidently ALL SORTS OF LEGALLY CONFUSING- you heard me, legally confusing- redundant. So I wonder IF the guy hadn't said it was a selfie, could he have owned the image? Let's ask Sarah Palin: "Sarah, if I take a picture can I own the image?" Sarah- "You betcha!" He had to get all cute and stuff and call it a selfie so millions would look at it and maybe buy his tacky tee shirts.
See, that camera owner violated rule one of ownership- copyright YOUR work, don't call it your monkey's efforts. The camera owner, David Slater, should have grabbed his camera back, given those grinning simians the finger and claimed full ownership. Then he could have copyrighted it- even on flickr, for FREE, for crissakes. Then there would be NO ISSUE whatsoever.
I have consulted animal expert, India Rose, on this. She has not only agreed that animals cannot own the pictures they take, but also agreed that this was a pretty stupid fight that resulted in my being able to decorate this post with a monkey/ape/macaque/whatever picture with no threat of retribution from violating copyright law.
Even though I think that animal is REALLY Gary Busey in disguise. No?
So enjoy! btw, those macaques are very friendly and sort of small- they seem to like photographers and people- which has endangered them.
Today's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfwrZnippOQ
Today's music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmtnpXrUI_o by Charlie McDonnell
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