A monkey who earned fame by snapping a selfie on David Slater's camera has a new advocate: PETA, whose latest stunt is to sue on behalf of the animal.
The plan: by having the 6-year old crested macaque declared the image's legal owner, it can be used to raise money for animal welfare.
After an earlier tussle over whether the image belonged to Slater, the U.S. Copyright Office listed a "photograph taken by a monkey" an an example of works created by non-humans that are not subject to copyright protection.
In PETA's new complaint, however, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the animal rights group claims that the pictures were the result of "a series of purposeful and voluntary actions by [the monkey] Naruto, unaided by Slater."
"Naruto has the right to own and benefit from the copyright," PETA's lawsuit asserts, "in the same manner and to the same extent as any other author."
Naruto lives on the Tangkoko Reserve on Sulawesi, Indonesia. Slater told Reuters that he felt persecuted by the lawsuit and "described himself as a low-paid wildlife photographer who has been struggling to earn a living."
Slater, his UK-based company, and a U.S. publisher selling a book with the photos on its cover are the lawsuit's targets.
