READING 3 Who Owns the Photo?

Who Owns the Photo?

Read the following article. Pay special attention to the bold and underlined verbs. 13.4

The monkey in the photo took this picture of herself.

Crested black macaques are hunted for their meat. Their environment is also threatened by human development. Because of this, there are only about 100,000 of them today.

In 2011, wildlife photographer David Slater traveled to Indonesia to photograph an endangered type of monkey, the crested black macaque. For days, Slater followed a group of these animals through a forest. One afternoon, when the group stopped to rest, Slater put his camera on a stand and moved away. A few minutes later, several monkeys approached the camera and started to play with it. Some pressed buttons and began taking photos of themselves. By the end, Slater had hundreds of monkey selfies1. One was taken by a female macaque. In the photo, she seems to be smiling. The image was published by different news media and became famous worldwide.

In the summer of 2011, Slater’s famous photo appeared on Wikipedia, a popular U.S. website. Slater contacted the company and complained. He asked the website to remove the photo, or to pay him for using it. His request was rejected. Why? Slater didn’t hold the copyright2, Wikipedia said. It was owned by the monkey—because she took the picture. But since a copyright cannot be held by an animal, Wikipedia argued, the photo could be used by anyone for free.

Today, the famous monkey selfie remains on Wikipedia—where it can be downloaded by anyone— and Slater’s fight with the company continues. A photographer does more than just press a button on a camera, Slater has said. When this case is heard in court, he hopes a judge will agree.

Some good has come from this situation, though. The legal case has attracted a lot of international attention, and people have begun protecting the crested black macaque. Slater has also agreed to help. He is donating 10 percent of the money that is made from the sale of the monkey photos to a conservation group. “I only wanted to help these animals—and I still do,” says Slater. Now he hopes the legal system will help him.

1 selfie: a photo that someone takes of himself or herself 2 copyright: the legal ownership of a photo, book, song, etc., which gives a person the exclusive right to publish or sell the material and make money from it