

If a monkey takes a selfie in the forest, who owns the copyright? - dctoedt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/08/06/if-a-monkey-takes-a-selfie-in-the-forest-who-owns-the-copyright-no-one-says-wikimedia

======
benwen
Also, makes one wonder about copyright ownership of the random strings and
sonnets produced by those infinite monkeys typing [0].

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem)

------
forca
The man who brought the camera. The monkey cannot legally own things,
copyrights or other, so the man owns the photos. 10 years ago this would not
even come up. Why have we gotten so "feel good" of late? Life is not unicorns
and glitter and nor should it be.

~~~
erkose
Suppose instead of a monkey, a human stole the camera and activated the
shutter. Who would own the copyright in this scenario? I assume the thief. The
consequence of this assumption is that the camera owner is not the copyright
owner. The monkey may not be endowed with ownership rights, but this does not
mean that the camera owner receives these rights. Instead, no-one owns the
copyright, and by "no-one" I mean everyone.

~~~
DanBC
What if an artist leaves a cheap camera chained to a bench with a note saying
"Take photos of yourself!".

Who owns the copyright there?
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/238859335/leaving-a-
dis...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/238859335/leaving-a-disposable-
camera-in-the-park)

[http://laughingsquid.com/new-york-shots-leaving-a-
disposable...](http://laughingsquid.com/new-york-shots-leaving-a-disposable-
camera-in-the-park-project/)

~~~
erkose
I'm not a lawyer. There may be an implied transfer of rights in the "Take
photos of yourself! [for my project]".

------
benwen
Anyone else reminded by this NYT Magazine article about a legal team suing on
behalf of a chimpanzee for his freedom?

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/magazine/the-rights-of-
man...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/magazine/the-rights-of-man-and-
beast.html)

[http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org](http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org)

Maybe after Lessig is done with the Mayday PAC he can opine on non-human IP
rights?

