Monkey Can’t Copyright Selfies

A monkey who manipulated a photographer’s camera and captured images of itself does not own the intellectual property rights to those shots, a federal judge ruled this week. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had argued that the monkey, Naruto, owned the photo rights over the owner of the camera, David Slater. PETA sought damages for copyright infringement, but the U.S. Copyright Office says works “produced by nature, animals, or plants,” cannot be granted copyright protection. From the bench U.S. District Judge William Orrick said, “I’m not the person to weigh in on this. … This is an issue for Congress and the president. If they think animals should have the right of copyright they’re free, I think, under the Constitution, to do that.”