People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had argued in United States District Court in SanFrancisco that the rights to the photograph, which was snapped using a photographer’sunattended camera, rightfully belonged to the monkey, a crested macaque.
善待動(dòng)物組織(Ethical Treatment of Animals)在舊金山的美國(guó)地方法院為這只黑冠獼猴爭(zhēng)取照片所有權(quán)。照片是這只猴子用攝影師故意放在那里的相機(jī)自拍的。
In a tentative opinion on Wednesday, Judge William H. Orrick disagreed.
周三(1月6日),威廉·H·奧里克法官(William H. Orrick)在一份初步意見書上對(duì)他們的主張表示反對(duì)。
“While Congress and the president can extend the protection of law to animals as well ashumans,” he wrote, “there is no indication that they did so in the copyright act.”
The images were taken during a trip by the British photographer, David Slater, to theTangkoko Reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in 2011. He put his camera on a tripodamid a troop of macaques, setting it so it would automatically focus and wind, and waited forthe animals to get curious.
Mr. Slater published a book, “Wildlife Personalities,” that included the pictures, and the imageswere widely shared online, including without permission by Wikipedia. When Mr. Slater askedthe crowd-sourced website to remove the image, it refused under much the same rationale asPETA: Mr. Slater didn’t press the shutter release, so the image was not his.
In September, PETA filed its lawsuit against Mr. Slater, his company, and Blurb, the companythat published his book, asking the judge to allow it to represent Naruto and distribute theimage’s proceeds for the benefit of the Indonesian reserve’s crested macaques, a criticallyendangered species.
The photographer’s lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that amonkey lacks legal standing. Its motion, at times, struck a mocking tone.
“A monkey, an animal-rights organization and a primatologist walk into federal court to sue forinfringement of the monkey’s claimed copyright. What seems like the setup for a punch line isreally happening.”
“This is an issue for Congress and the president,” he said, according to Ars Technica. “If theythink animals should have the right of copyright, they’re free, I think, under the Constitution,to do that.”
Last July, another legal effort to reinterpret the rights of other primates failed to persuade ajudge. The Nonhuman Rights Project argued in a State Supreme Court in Manhattan that twoapes being held by a university for research were “legal persons,” highly intelligent and self-aware, and should be removed to a sanctuary. The judge took the case seriously, butultimately decided that under the law, Hercules and Leo were property, not people.
去年7月,另一次重新闡釋其他靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物權(quán)利的法律行動(dòng)也沒(méi)有贏得法官的支持。非人類權(quán)利計(jì)劃(Nonhuman Rights Project)在曼哈頓的州最高法院要求釋放一所大學(xué)拘禁的兩只用作研究的類人猿,稱它們是“法人”,具有很高的智商和自我意識(shí),應(yīng)該被送往保護(hù)區(qū)。那位法官認(rèn)真對(duì)待這一案件,但是最終判定,依照法律,赫爾克里士(Hercules)和利奧(Leo)是財(cái)產(chǎn),不是人。
Despite PETA’s setback this week, the group cast its unorthodox legal battle as a crucialstep toward enlarging the rights of animals.
“We will continue to fight for Naruto and his fellow macaques,” Jeff Kerr, an attorney for PETA,said in a statement, adding “As my legal mentor used to say, ‘In social-cause cases,historically, you lose, you lose, you lose, and then you win.’”