‘Monkey Selfie’ Naruto Files Appeal

Remember Naruto? The crested Sulawesi macaque that actually took a selfie while looking real good a couple of years back? It was then stated to belong to the public domain, but it seems that Naruto has filed an appeal concerning its copyright case .Wait a minute here, can a monkey actually file an appeal?

Not really, although it was brought by PETA on Naruto’s behalf, with the appeal being against nature photographer David Slater as well as the self-publishing book company that published a photography book which contained said famous selfie that Naruto took using Slater’s equipment. Naruto’s lawyers (working for bananas or on a pro-bono basis, I would suppose) insist that Naruto owns the copyright, and hence Slater and the publishing firm would have infringed upon said copyright with what they had done.

It seems that the Ninth Circuit will be ruling on the matter should an appeal brief be filed. Just in case you were wondering whether there is any kind of precedent in such a matter, the Ninth Circuit case Cetacean v. Bush is one – where a “self-appointed attorney for all of the world’s whales, porpoises, and dolphins” sued the Navy, claiming that the Navy utilized an allegedly harmful sonar system that affected marine life negatively.

Edwin Kee
Categories: General
Tags: selfie