Who owns a monkey's selfie?

PositionTHE BIG PICTURE

A crested black macaque takes a camera, flashes a smile, and snaps a selfie. Who owns the copyright? That's the question British photographer David Slater and Wikimedia Commons, an online database of free media files, tussled over for three years. In 2011, Slater was doing a photo shoot in the Indonesian jungle when a macaque got hold of his camera and took a picture of itself (right). After Slater shared it with reporters, the selfie went viral and ended up on Wikimedia. Slater asked the site to remove the photo, saying that because the monkey used his camera, the right to license and sell the image is Slater's. Wikimedia refused. Everyone is taking selfies these days (see chart), but this one raised a novel question: Can you copyright a photo taken by an animal? The U.S. Copyright Office recently sided with Wikimedia, saying content produced by animals is in the public domain. "The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants," the updated regulations read. Examples now include "a photograph taken by a monkey."

Some Selfie Facts

1839

Year the first selfie was taken, by...

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