Wikimedia refuses to delete macaque monkey selfie
Wikimedia says the copyright for this photo belongs to the black macaque that took it, rather than the photographer who owned the camera. (Supplied/Wikimedia) Supplied/Wikimedia
A grinning selfie snapped by a wild monkey who hit a photographer's shutter button has become the subject of a bizarre copyright dispute in the US.
British nature photographer David Slater has made repeated requests to Wikimedia, the US-based non-profit organisation behind Wikipedia, to remove the image from its collection of royalty-free online images, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports.
But Wikimedia has refused his requests. The information it attached to the image regarding reuse reads: "This file is in the public domain, because as the work of a non-human animal, it has no human author in whom copyright is vested."
The author credit reads: "self-portrait by the depicted Macaca nigra female".
Slater was in Indonesia in 2011, photographing crested black macaques, when one of the monkeys grabbed his camera and took hundreds of self-portraits.
Several of the images were distributed online and Slater is now seeking income for their usage.
He is considering taking his dispute with Wikimedia to court.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Wikimedia refused to remove the image because the copyright belonged to the monkey. Unfortunately, non-humans are not allowed to hold copyright under US law.
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