page_title: Monkey selfie copyright dispute
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Monkey selfie copyright dispute / Background
caption_attribution_description: বাংলা: ২০১১ সালে ইন্দোনেশিয়ার উত্তর সুলায়েশি দ্বীপে ব্ল্যাক ম্যাকারের (Macaca nigra) নিজেই নিজের তোলা ছবি (সেলফি), নারী প্রজাতির এই বানরটি আলোকচিত্রশিল্পী ডেভিড স্ল্যাটারের ক্যমেরাটি ছিনিয়ে নিয়ে নিজেই নিজের ছবি উঠিয়েছিল। English: Self-portrait of a female Celebes crested macaque (Macaca nigra) in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, who had picked up photographer David Slater's camera and photographed herself with it. Esperanto: Memportreto de ina Kresta Nigra Makako (Macaca nigra) en Norda Sulaveso (Indonezio), kiu prenis la fotilon de la fotografisto David Slater kaj fotografis sin per ĝi. Español: Autoretrato de un macaco negro crestado (Macaca nigra) en Célebes Septentrional, Indonesia, tras hacerse con la cámara del fotógrafo David Slater y hacerse una fotografía de sí mismo. Français&#160;: Auto-portrait d'une femelle macaque à crête (Macaca nigra) en Sulawesi du Nord (Indonésie) qui s'est emparé de l'appareil du photographe David Slater et s'est photographiée avec.
context_page_description: The monkey selfie copyright dispute is a series of disputes about the copyright status of selfies taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to the British nature photographer David Slater. The disputes involve Wikimedia Commons and the blog Techdirt, which have hosted the images following their publication in newspapers in July 2011 over Slater's objections that he holds the copyright, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who have argued that the macaque should be assigned the copyright.
  Slater has argued that he has a valid copyright claim, as he engineered the situation that resulted in the pictures by travelling to Indonesia, befriending a group of wild macaques, and setting up his camera equipment in such a way that a "selfie" picture might come about. The Wikimedia Foundation's 2014 refusal to remove the pictures from its Wikimedia Commons image library was based on the understanding that copyright is held by the creator, that a non-human creator cannot hold copyright, and that the images are thus in the public domain.
context_section_description: Since 2008, British nature photographer David Slater had traveled to Indonesia to take photographs of the critically endangered Celebes crested macaques. In 2011 he licensed several images to the Caters News Agency who released them, along with a written promotional press release with quotes from Slater, for publication in the British media. On 4 July 2011 several publications including The Telegraph, and The Guardian picked up the story and published the pictures along with articles that quoted Slater as describing the photographs as self-portraits taken by the monkeys: "Monkey steals camera to snap himself" (The Telegraph), "a camera on a tripod" triggered by the monkeys (The Guardian), and a camera started by a monkey "Fascinated by her reflection in the lens". The articles also contained Slater quotes such as "He must have taken hundreds of pictures by the time I got my camera back." The following day, Amateur Photographer reported that Slater gave them further explanation as to how the photographs were created, downplaying the way newspaper articles had described them; Slater said reports that a monkey ran off with his camera and "began taking self-portraits" were incorrect and that the portrait was shot when his camera had been mounted on a tripod, with the primates playing around with a remote cable release as he fended off other monkeys.
  Slater gave further description on his website and in other media accounts, saying he and a guide followed the monkeys for three days, gaining their trust on the second day. According to Slater, in his attempts to get photographs of the monkeys, he found that they were fascinated with the camera and the camera gear and kept playing with it, but they also kept trying to run off with the camera. Slater further stated in a 7 August 2014 Amateur Photographer follow-up article that "I wanted a close-up image but I couldn't do it. They were too nervous, so I had to get them [the monkeys] to come to the camera without me being there and get them to play with the release, which they did". He added: "They were looking at the reflection in the lens, which they found amusing". In an attempt to get a portrait of the monkeys' faces, Slater said he set the camera on a tripod with a large wide-angle lens attached, and set the camera's settings to optimize the chances of getting a facial close up, using predictive autofocus, motor drive, and a flashgun. Slater further stated that he set the camera's remote shutter trigger next to the camera and, while he held onto the tripod, the monkeys spent 30 minutes looking into the lens and playing with the camera gear, triggering the remote multiple times and capturing many photographs. The session ended when the "dominant male at times became over excited and eventually gave me a whack with his hand as he bounced off my back". Slater also said in a 28 July 2017 Vice magazine interview that some news outlets were misreporting how he obtained the selfie, but he went along with it because it was "a bit of fun and some good publicity for the conservation cause".
caption: The other disputed image, a full-body "selfie"
exif: {}