Can a Monkey Get a Copyright & Issue a Takedown?

An anonymous reader writes "Last week, the Daily Mail published a story about some monkeys in Indonesia who happened upon a camera and took some photos of themselves. The photos are quite cute. However, Techdirt noticed that the photos had copyright notices on them, and started a discussion over who actually held the copyright in question, noting that, if anyone did, the monkeys had the best claim, and certainly not the photographer. Yet, the news agency who claimed copyright issued a takedown to Techdirt! When presented with the point that it's unlikely the news agency could hold a legitimate copyright, the agency told Techdirt it didn't matter. Techdirt claims that using the photos for such a discussion is a clear case of fair use, an argument which has so far been ignored."

Comments

Re:Seems fair

[bipbop]

I know that if you are the sole possessor of, e.g., a discontinued book, you become the copyright holder of that work.

[citation needed]

Re:Maybe a million monkeys

[jimshatt]

The photographer, David Slate, was there with his camera to photograph the monkeys. That's your intentionality right there. It doesn't matter if he shot the photos themselves, used a tripod and a random interval for taking pictures, or used monkeys. I know I'm stretching the glorified tripod analogy, but still...

When I ask a passer-by to take a picture of me (and my family), who owns the copyright? I really don't know.