Monkey’s selfies taken in Indonesia back in US court over copyright claim

The US Copyright Office in 2014 said that a monkey – or any other animal – that takes a selfie, does not own the copyright of the photo.

The battle over now-famous selfie photographs taken by a macaque monkey will head back to federal court.

Tourists take a selfie with a monkey in Jaipur. The US Court of Appeals will be hearing a case over the copyright of a photo a macaque took with nature photographer David Slater’s camera. (PTI File Photo/Representative image)

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco on Wednesday will hear arguments on whether an animal can own the copyright to a photograph. The proceedings will be broadcast online.

The lawsuit filed in 2015 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sought a court order allowing PETA to administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey, which it identified as Naruto.

The photos were taken during a 2011 trip to Sulawesi, Indonesia, with British nature photographer David Slater’s camera.

Slater says the British copyright obtained for the photos by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honoured worldwide

A federal judge last year ruled that the monkey cannot be declared the photos’ copyright owner.