People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has claimed in a lawsuit filed Tuesday at a San Francisco federal court that a monkey who took a selfie of himself should be given copyright as well as damages for infringement.
A six-year-old macaque monkey named Naruto took numerous selfies in 2011 using the camera that was left unattended by British photographer David Slater, who was taking pictures in the Tangkoko Reserve on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, the Daily Mail reported.
The litigation aims to obtain an order from the court to give PETA control over the profits from the photos for the monkey's benefit. It also asserts that it is filing the copyright claim on behalf of the monkey "due to (the monkey's) inaccessibility and incapacity."
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that the federal court in San Francisco has authority since Slater's book "Wildlife Personalities," which contains copies of the "monkey selfie" photos, made sales in the U.S., according to Reuters.
"I am obviously bemused at PETA's stunt but also angry as well as sad," Slater wrote on his Facebook page, saying that the lawsuit is ridiculous.
"This makes animal welfare charities look bad which saddens me, deflecting away from the animals and onto stunts like this," he added.
While PETA proclaims that the monkey should have ownership of the selfie, Wikimedia, which has permitted the "monkey selfie" to be on their free-to-use website, declares that the photos are public domain since animals cannot obtain copyrights, CNN reported.
