Probably, everyone knows the case where photographer David Slater attempted to take a picture of the black crested macaque in Indonesia in 2011.
A monkey picked up one of his cameras and started playing with it, taking hundreds of photos. Most images failed, but a few of the pictures were quite sharp and the selfie went viral.
But who owns the copyright to the photo? The American animal rights organization PETA filed a lawsuit against the photographer. The court ruled that an animal cannot be the proprietor of a copyright.
The two kept fighting and now we have reached the final chapter of ‘Monkey Business’ (we hope)! PETA and David Slater now concluded an agreement whereas Slater will donate 25% of the revenues on the photo.
The final question we can ask is: which revenues (as probably nobody owns the copyright on the photo)?