Photographer David Slater said he owns the copyright to the images of crested black macaque monkeys, which were taken in the Indonesian jungle in 2011.

Slater told the BBC that although the monkeys pressed the button, he had set the self-portraits up by framing them and setting the camera on a tripod.

But Wikimedia Foundation said no one owned the copyright to the images, because under U.S. law, “copyright cannot vest in non-human authors” — the monkeys in this case.

Seems to me we should update the law to allow for proper distribution of royalties to primates. I mean, think of how many bananas, mangosteens, and marquisa telur kodoks that guy could have coming to him?

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Quoted text via Mercury News.