Vanity

So, here's an interesting legal dilemma. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a group of macaque monkeys stole a camera from a British photographer and, being the curious and brilliant primates they are, quickly figured out how to take pictures. Monkeys, like humans, are often vain and they didn't photograph each other, they took hundreds of self portraits. The photos above are but two of the many good shots they got. I wonder if they have Facebook accounts.

 

The photographer got his camera back and processed the photos. A news agency then took a select few and published them without asking.

 

Normally, this would be easy: the new agency did not get permission from the photographer to use the images so they are at fault. Ahh but there is a rub which I'm sure you can guess by now: The news agency claims the images are not copyrighted to the photographer because he didn't take them, the monkeys did. It sounds funny but that's true...in most countries a photo is copyrighted to the one who takes it, automatically and instantly, no filing of papers is necessary. Neither the photographer nor the news agency obtained a release to use the photos from the copyright owners. Who are...the macaques.

 

Yep, the monkeys own those photographs, technically. Or they should anyhow. But we humans have little regard for the legal status of our closest relatives or their artistic accomplishments, no matter how human-like they may be, so I doubt they'll be allowed to sue the photographer and the news agency. And if they did they might be in trouble with the law for stealing the camera in the first place.

 

These kinds of scenarios happen more than you think, and they bring us face to face with a very troubling reality. Where is the line between human and non-human primates? These monkeys are very intelligent. They have feelings and emotions just like ours. Their social interactions are every bit as nuanced and complex as ours. They share most of our active genes and all of our body chemistry. As Carl Sagan said: "Bone for bone, muscle for muscle, there are almost no important differences between apes and humans". It is impossible for us to watch other primates and not immediately be struck by how "human" they are. Yet to us they have basically no value or rights.

 

Now, I'm not suggesting giving all primates driver's licenses (although they couldn't do much worse than the average driver on I-75). I'm not suggesting anything really, this is the kind of thing I ponder in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. It's an uneasy kind of thing. Look into that silly monkey's eyes above and tell me he doesn't have a spark of us in him. He knows what he's doing.

 

 

Note: in case you're wondering if I got permission from the monkeys to post these, I didn't because I don't have to. What I'm doing constitutes "Fair use" and is not in violation of any copyrights.