The Patriot Post® · U.S. Denies Copyright Protection for Monkey's Photo

David Slater was photographing crested black macaque monkeys in an Indonesian rainforest in 2011 when a monkey grabbed his camera and snapped off a few frames. It was a monkey selfie. When Slater discovered companies like Wikimedia Commons using the photo, he tried to stop the company, but it argued because a monkey produced the photo, the photo is in the public domain. The U.S. Copyright Office agrees. “The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants,” it wrote. “Likewise, the Office cannot register a work purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings, although the Office may register a work where the application or the deposit copy(ies) state that the work was inspired by a divine spirit.” So if God takes a selfie, the government won’t get involved because the copyright office deals with creations done by humans only. More…