A lawsuit between a British wildlife photographer and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) over a "monkey selfie" was settled Monday, after the appeal judges at a court in San Francisco threw out the organization's appeal on "behalf of the animal" for copyright to the image. Following the settlement, PETA wrote on their blog: “As a part of the arrangement, Slater agreed to donate 25 percent of any future revenue derived from using or selling the monkey selfies to charities that protect the habitat of Naruto and other crested macaques in Indonesia.”

It added: “Naruto and the famous ‘monkey selfie’ photographs that he undeniably took clearly demonstrate that he and his fellow macaques … are highly intelligent, thinking, sophisticated beings worthy of having legal ownership of their own intellectual property and holding other rights as members of the legal community.”

A joint statement read: “PETA and David Slater agree that this case raises important, cutting-edge issues about expanding legal rights for nonhuman animals, a goal that they both support, and they will continue their respective work to achieve this goal.”

When the copyright controversy erupted, Slater said that the widespread distribution of the photos online had cost him a lot of money by robbing his book of potential sales — so it’s unclear how much money the habitat charities will clear in the deal. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sued Slater and self-publishing company Blurb in 2015, arguing the monkey owned the copyright to the photos and proposing it administer all proceeds for the benefit of the monkey. The seeds of the legal battle between Slater and PETA were sown when a crested macaque monkey took selfies with Slater's camera during his visit to Indonesia in 2011, reports said.
PETA and David Slater settle the monkey selfie copyright dispute.