Update from our previous blog post Monkeying Around with Copyright Law
On Monday, April 23, the 9thU.S Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the District Court’s ruling that copyright protection does not extend to selfies taken by a monkey.
In 2011, during one of photographer David Slater’s trip to Sulawesi, Indonesia, a crested macaque, “Naruto”, took photos of himself with one of Slater’s unattended cameras. After Slater’s photos were published, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demanded that Naruto be assigned the copyright in the photos because he was the “author” and that they be given financial control over the photos so they could administer any profits derived from their use to Naruto and other crested macaques in the Sulawesi preserve. Slater, however, argued that his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., owned the rights to Naruto’s photos.
In the District Court decision on January 28, 2016, Judge William Orrick ruled that Naruto did not come within the definition of an author in the Copyright Act. Judge Orrick relied on, namely, the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices issued in December 2014 to come to his conclusion. He examined the section “Works That Lack Human Authorship”, where it is noted that “[t]o qualify as a work of ‘authorship’ a work must be created by a human being. Works that do not satisfy this requirement are not copyrightable.” A monkey is not a human being and therefore cannot own a copyright. PETA appealed the decision on March 20, 2016.
Following the July 2017 oral argument, both parties asked that the court not issue a ruling on the appeal as they were in the process of an out-of-court settlement. The court granted the parties’ motion to stay the pending appeal during the settlement talks. On September 8, 2017, the parties reached an agreement where Slater will donate 25% of any future revenues derived from Naruto’s photos to charities that protect crested macaques. PETA dropped the appeal and both parties asked for vacatur to nullify the record in the lower court.
The 9thUS Circuit Court of Appeals refused to dismiss the case and affirmed the District Court’s decision on April 23, 2018. The court derided PETA in its decision noting “PETA seems to employ Naruto as an unwitting pawn in its ideological goals.” Further, commenting on the settlement between Slater and PETA, the court stated “[i]t remains unclear what claims PETA purported to be ‘settling’, since the court was under the impression that this lawsuit was about Naruto’s claims.” Naruto, on the other hand, has not yet commented on the decision and is likely not disappointed that he does not own the copyright to his selfies.
Sources:
Naruto v. Slater, 15-CV-04324-WHO, 2016 WL 362231 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 28, 2016), aff’d, 16-15469, 2018 WL 1902414 (9th Cir. Apr. 23, 2018)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-monkey-selfie-appeal-20180423-story.html