SAN FRANCISCO – Federal appeals judges in San Francisco have grilled an attorney for an animal rights group that wants a monkey awarded the rights to a selfie photo it snapped.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday asked the lawyer why the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had authority to sue on behalf of the monkey named Naruto.
PETA sought a court order in 2015 allowing it to administer all proceeds from the photos to benefit the monkey.
Naruto snapped the photos in Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 2011 with an unattended camera belonging to British nature photographer David Slater.
Slater says the British copyright for the photos obtained by his company should be honored worldwide.
A federal judge ruled last year that the monkey cannot be declared the photos’ copyright owner.