Thursday, September 24, 2015
More Monkey Business: Lawsuit Over Monkey’s Property Rights in Selfie
We recently reported on a New York case where the judge begrudgingly held that monkeys are not people in the eyes of the law. As you might imagine, PETA disagrees, and it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a monkey named Naruto from Indonesia. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, alleges that Naruto has property rights in a selfie that he took of himself in 2011, which subsequently went viral. We’d post a copy of the photo, but we certainly don’t want Naruto suing us.
One of the defendants in the case is the owner of the camera that Naruto used to take the camera selfie. The lawsuit alleges that he has improperly reproduced and distributed the photo for which Naruto owns the copyright. According to the complaint:
While the claim of authorship by species other than homo sapiens may be novel, “authorship” under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. , is sufficiently broad so as to permit the protections of the law to extend to any original work, including those created by Naruto. Naruto should be afforded the protection of a claim of ownership, and the right to recover damages and other relief for copyright infringement, as asserted on his be half by the Next Friends.
You may be asking what relief Naruto seeks as compensation. Bananas? Apples? Nope, according to PETA, what Naruto wants and needs is money. But, of course, Naruto is not a greedy monkey, so he doesn’t want the money for himself. The complaint requests that the disgorgement of profits from the prior sales and proceeds from future sales be given PETA to do with as it the pleases. Such cases might require the advice of Business Lawyers – Crow Estate Planning and Probate, PLC
Attorneys, in light of these events, you’d best prepare your clients to enforce their property rights. You know the fox that was chased off that old abandoned farmland in order to clear the way for a McMansion neighborhood? Squatter’s rights. That bird with a nest in the tree that was cut down? Real property damage. The whale whose song was recorded underwater without permission? Copyright infringement. Here we go . . . .
