Washington: The United States Copyright Office has said in its verdict on the copyright tussle over the infamous monkey selfie that it belongs to the public domain.
In the first major revision of copyright laws in more than 20 years, the office stated that that works created by animals belong to the public domain and that it cannot register such works in its official records, reported The Washington Post.
Embroiled in a case of copyright violation, Wikipedia has reportedly refused to take down the picture of a monkey which was clicked using the camera of a British wildlife photographer.
However, the picture was not taken by photographer David Slater but by the monkey himself, reported The Huffington Post.
In 2011, Slater spotted a crested black macaque in Indonesia and set up his camera to click a photo. Suddenly, the monkey snatched the camera and started to take selfies. The photos became viral and ended up on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, a website owned by the Wikimedia Foundation which provides royalty free photos to internet users around the world.
While Slater asked Wikipedia to take down the photo because the copyright belongs to him, Wikipedia refused to do so by arguing that the photo was technically taken by the monkey and not him.
Accusing Wikipedia of having a communistic view of life, Slater later said that he is aggrieved over the situation.
Meanwhile, Wikipedia has retorted by saying that since, a monkey cannot own the copyright therefore, there's no one who owns the copyright and the image falls into the public domain.
