Remember the monkey selfie? Kind of hard not to.
Besides its...gripping composition, the photo rose to fame when the photographer whose camera it was on, David Slater, published it in 2011. PETA sued Slater a few years later, insisting that the monkey -- a crested macaque named Naruto -- technically owned the copyright.
They ultimately wanted to reap the benefits of the photos for wildlife protection, which is understandable, even if their reasoning is quite the stretch.
In September 2017, the lawsuit seemed to end with a settlement in which Slater would donate 25 percent of any additional revenue from the photos to Indonesian wildlife groups. But then the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Appeals Court last month was like, “Guys, no,” and decided to lay down a ruling anyway. Among other reasons, they used the fact that one of the main parties wasn’t present for the settlement -- that party being, of course, Naruto himself.
They threw the case out, ruling that animals cannot sue under the Copyright Law. Imagine that.
The trial is over, so we’ll probably never hear about this monkey again, right? Not if Conde Nast has anything to say about it!
They’ve bought the life rights to David Slater, prompting a film outside the studio’s typical content pool. Their latest project, "Old Man and the Gun," is set for release this October and is based on a 2003 New Yorker article about an aged bank robber seeking a new heist.
Let’s ask ourselves the most important question, though: Will Naruto make a cameo?