SAN FRANCISCO | A curious monkey with a toothy grin and a knack for pressing a camera button was back in the spotlight Wednesday as a federal appeals court heard arguments on whether an animal can hold a copyright to selfie photos. Now, a three-judge panel in San Francisco is asking PETA's attorney why the group should represent the monkey's interests. On Wednesday, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals questioned lawyers in a 2015 case surrounding a macaque monkey named Naruto who took selfies using British nature photographer David Slater's camera during a 2011 trip to Indonesia. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco on Wednesday will hear arguments on whether an animal can own the copyright to a photograph. The lawsuit filed in 2015 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sought a court order allowing PETA to administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey, which it identified as Naruto, a free-living crested macaque from Indonesia. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Naruto is a free-living crested macaque who snapped perfectly framed selfies in 2011 that would make even the Kardashians proud. Slater says the British copyright obtained for the photos by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honored worldwide

PETA sued Slater and his San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, which published a book called “Wildlife Personalities” that includes the “monkey selfie” photos. Slater says the copyright for the photos, which are held by his company Wildlife Personalities, should be honored worldwide. PETA attorney David Schwarz argued that Naruto was accustomed to cameras and took the selfies when he saw himself in the reflection of the lens. A federal judge last year ruled that the monkey cannot be declared the photos’ copyright owner, saying that while Congress and the president can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act. Attorney Angela Dunning, who represents Blurb, said they're not concerned about the case being retried, and that they feel optimistic. PETA’s general counsel Jeff Kerr said after the hearing that the group plans to use money from the photos to protect monkey habitats and help people study the monkeys.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco hears a case on whether or not a Celebes crested macaque owns its selfie.