Wikipedia’s refusal to delete a link to a freely downloadable image of a crested black macaque left UK photographer David Slater seeking legal advice, claiming it had deprived him of thousands of pounds in lost earnings.
Wikipedia claimed that copyright over a portrait of a monkey does not belong to the photographer where the monkey has fired the shutter, which Slater disputed on grounds that he set up the jungle shoot.
The famous image is now among 130 prints – signed and donated by the photographers – up for grabs in a project to mark the 130th anniversary of Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine.
‘Whatever the [legal] outcome the image itself must surely be one of the best monkey portraits ever taken, and you can win a print of it signed by David Slater,’ said AP Editor Nigel Atherton.
In return for taking part, entrants are asked to kindly make a voluntary donation to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
The monkey photo sparked a global media frenzy earlier this year.
Black Macaque, Indonesia, 2011. “The monkey Selfie”
The US Copyright Office said that it will only register an original work of authorship, ‘provided that the work was created by a human being’.
It added that it ‘will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants’ – citing, as an example, ‘a photograph taken by a monkey’.
However, Slater hit back, saying: ‘I was the human origin of that photograph. Without me, it wouldn’t have happened.’
Slater maintained he held copyright in the same way a wildlife photographer owns rights to an image when an animal fires the shutter remotely by crossing an infrared beam set up for that purpose.
‘The one that takes a photograph is the one that sets it up,’ he told AP in the summer.
Other photographers taking part in the project include Gered Mankowitz, Art Wolfe, Steve McCurry, Charlie Waite, Steve Bloom, Tom Stoddart, Joe Cornish and Clive Nichols.
For full details, visit the AP competition page.
The competition closes on 31 December 2014.
