Wikipedia refuses to delete photo as 'monkey owns it'

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Well, the title is a little misleading. Nonetheless, interesting reading and case. And the mug shot............ Monkeyliscious!!!

Wikimedia, the non-profit organisation behind Wikipedia, has refused a photographer’s repeated requests to stop distributing his most famous shot for free – because a monkey pressed the shutter button and should own the copyright

Wikipedia refuses to delete photo as 'monkey owns it' - Telegraph
 
yeah, indeed an interesting case! saw it on the news yesterday. And every TV station and every newspaper spread these pics even more, though it's still unclear who has the rights on it.
 
One is really interesting is the photographer makes money on ONE of every 10.000 images in his specific genre.

and it won't be long until monkeys will be photographing weddings. Though by the results some already do.
 
I don't get it. Even if the monkey has the copyrights, don't they need some sort of a legal document from the aforementioned monkey before they are allowed to share the work? :scratch:
 
Eh the thing is the monkey took the shot - and animals don't have copyright rights to their work.

Except I've a feeling that a large number of those Tate Modern "animal artists" do actaully have rights to their work or their owners do. So is Wiki's angle that only "wild" animals have no copyright ownership? My guess is Wiki just doesn't want to pull a popular image so they are scrabbling for answers knowing that they can open up a huge box of legal worms and that the photographer is likely to back down - the resulting publicity is more humour than anything else so it doesn't even tarnish them much (although it does leave wiki looking like the bad guys in this).
 
The photographer is only angry because the monkey takes a better photo than he does :mrgreen:

John.
 
The photographer has no claim to the image, because he did not take it. His stance that it was taken with his equipment, has no standing with the copyright laws.....
 
I agree that animals don';t have legal rights such that an animal could own a copyright.

But Slater's situation would be the same if he had found an abandoned camera that had images on it.
He didn't make the photo, so he can't own the copyright either.

What I want to know is - who is Slater getting legal advice from.
Such that Slater thinks he has a monkey's chance of living wild at the North pole to be adjudicated as the copyright owner of the photos the monkey clicked.
It seems Mr. Slater has plenty of money to throw at a lost cause.
 
Why does it matter who physically pressed the button?
 
Why does it matter who physically pressed the button?

Cause it's the same principal as me going over to some famous painters house and whipping up a master piece using his supplies. The artist could claim he owns the painting since it was his paint, brush, canvas and his house.

Either way this story is bananas!
 
Why does it matter who physically pressed the button?

If I borrow your camera and take a shot, who owns the photo - you or me?

. . . . .

The real issue in all of this is how it will affect the Fauxtogs: 1) they can rejoice in knowing even monkeys can take decent photos; or 2) they can be depressed from knowing that even monkeys can take photos better than they.
 
taking a picture is much different than taking a photo. to take a photo of an apple, one must have an apple. to paint one, you can poo on paper, for all I care, and call it an apple.

If I borrow your camera and take a shot, who owns the photo - you or me?

If I set up and facilitate a shot: the lighting, the pose, the camera, the settings, the frame, etc. and hand you a wireless trigger to simply press; whose photo is it?

If I set up and facilitate a shot: the lighting, the pose, the camera, the settings, etc., but you then compose your own shot; whose photo is it?
 
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Why does it matter who physically pressed the button?

If I borrow your camera and take a shot, who owns the photo - you or me?

. . . . .

The real issue in all of this is how it will affect the Fauxtogs: 1) they can rejoice in knowing even monkeys can take decent photos; or 2) they can be depressed from knowing that even monkeys can take photos better than they.
So the lesson here I guess is if you do loan your expensive dslr to a monkey and he takes a great shot, don't go around bragging about the fact that a monkey took it.

See, yet another great life lesson brought to you by TPF.
 
^^^This, Just say you took it. Who's going to know? The monkey? I don't think he's going to tell anyone haha
 
Ok, what if now he says that he was lying and actually he was the one who took it, what then? The photograph is famous already, isn't it? And who'll prove him wrong?
 

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