Re: Good article.
> If I use the time delay feature that has been standard in cameras for decades, the camera takes the picture (usually with me in it), but I set it up. No-one in the last few decades has seriously attempted to claim that I don't have copyright in that picture.
I really think some of the commentators here should take a look at the facts of the article.
The picture was not "set up". The photographer contributed absolutely nothing to the taking of this picture:
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"British nature photographer David Slater was in Indonesia in 2011 attempting to get the perfect image of a crested black macaque when one of the animals came up to investigate his equipment, hijacked a camera and took hundreds of selfies.
Many of them were blurry and some were pointed at the jungle floor, but among them were a handful of fantastic images - including a selfie taken by a grinning female macaque which made headlines around the world and brought Mr Slater his 15 minutes of fame.
"They were quite mischievous jumping all over my equipment, and it looked like they were already posing for the camera when one hit the button," he said at the time. "The sound got his attention and he kept pressing it. At first it scared the rest of them away but they soon came back - it was amazing to watch.
He must have taken hundreds of pictures by the time I got my camera back, but not very many were in focus. He obviously hadn't worked that out yet."
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What the photographer is arguing about is not his moral rights. He is not even asserting that he took the picture or contributed to it in a creative capacity.
He is arguing that it was his camera so it should be his copyright:
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If the monkey took it, it owns copyright, not me, that’s their basic argument. What they don’t realise is that it needs a court to decide that,” he said.
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His main argument seems to be that his trip was expensive, the equipment is expensive and it's his so he deserves to get copyright of the snaps.
As a legal argument, I think that's pretty thin.