Antje Engelhardt, a leading primatologist from Germany who has worked with the macaques, has joined Peta in the suit, which was filed at a federal court in San Francisco.
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On Monday, animal rights activists sought USA legal permission for proceeds from the photos to benefit the monkey.
Mr Englehardt is a scientist who has known, monitored and studied the monkey since his birth.
As stated in the lawsuit, photographer David John Slater traveled to Indonesia’s Tangkoko Reserve to take wildlife photos “in or around 2011”.
This case exemplifies what PETA has championed for 35 years: Animals deserve recognition of appropriate rights for their own sake, and not in relation to their exploitation by humans. If they can convince a judge that an animal has property rights, they think that’ll bring them one step closer to shutting down McDonald’s and KFC for good.
As it’s laid out in the lawsuit, Slater left his camera unattended, allowing the macaque to grab it and take several selfies along with some other shots of the area.
According to the plaint PETA states that the selfies were a result of the “purposeful and voluntary actions” by Naruto, without any external supervision, therefore the original work should be rightfully owned by Naruto and not Slater. Further contributing to this clusterfuck, Wikimedia claimed previous year that when a monkey takes a selfie, no one owns it. While he was gone, the macaques snapped a series of photos.
That famous “monkey selfie” has reared its (adorable) grinning head again. Naruto should be afforded the protection of a claim of ownership, and the right to recover damages and other relief for copyright infringement, as asserted on his behalf by the Next Friends.
He said he was very disappointed not to have been contacted by PETA in advance, and described himself as a low-paid wildlife photographer who has been struggling to earn a living.
All this monkey business raises two interesting legal questions: Can an animal even get a copyright of a selfie?
“Our argument is simple: US copyright law doesn’t prohibit an animal from owning a copyright, and since Naruto took the photo, he owns the copyright, as any human would”, says the group.
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“I sincerely wish my 5-year-old daughter to be able to be proud of her father and inherit my copyrights so that she can make my work into an asset and inheritance and go to university”, he wrote in his email.
