On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the following question: Does a Celebes crested macaque hold copyright to a selfie? Celebes crested macaques are a critically endangered species of Old World monkey originally from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
In 2011, British nature photographer David Slater did an experiment to see if the macaques could operate the camera. A female macaque named Naruto took many photographs, including a selfie that was the subject of the current litigation. Since the monkey took the photograph’s on Slater’s camera, the photographer took the images as his own and claimed he possessed the copyright.
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