David Slater has won a monkey selfie lawsuit and received the rights to pictures, taken by a baboon during his trip to Indonesia.
At the same time, he has pledged to donate 25% of his income from the use of the pictures for animal protection purposes.
"PETA and David Slater agree that this case raises important, cutting-edge issues about expanding legal rights for non-human animals, a goal that they both support, and they will continue their respective work to achieve this goal," the website of the animal protection organization said.
The photos of the smiling monkey have become so popular that the Wikimedia Foundation, which supports the Wikipedia encyclopedia, added them to the free images section. Slater claimed he owned the copyright for the images and demanded Wikipedia to take down the pictures, but the founders of the project replied that the copyright belongs to the one who took the photos, and in this case it was the baboon.
According to the organization's representatives, the fact that the baboon is not human does not mean that he can't be a photographer.
At the same time, Slater insisted that the camera, tripod and lens belong to him as well as setting up the light for the pictures while the primate simply pressed the button.
Many law students as well as ordinary people came to court to hear the case. The proceedings have become one of the most talked about and odd court hearings in recent decades.
@ChrisStigall Monkey selfie copyright?? What's next? Paychecks given to race horses, greyhounds, and carrier pigeons? Extra taxes for govt.
— Ken (@silverhornet679) 12 сентября 2017 г.
Photographer wins rights to monkey selfie, so he should have, I'm all for saving the animals but whole thing was ridiculous. Shame on peta
— Ser Dan of Rhondda (@MrGreysGaming) 12 сентября 2017 г.
How exactly did the suit survive a standing challenge? Did the monkey hire PETA?
— The Real Deal (@qmastertoo) 14 июля 2017 г.
