Today’s lecture covered the topics of copyright and artificial intelligence. In my opinion, the most interesting topic from the lecture was the discussion about Naruto vs. David Slater – it makes me wonder how the world is even real…
In simple terms, Naruto is a monkey that got hold of a camera and was ‘talented’ enough to take selfies. The camera’s owner, photographer David Slater, published a book containing the most intriguing images – and went on to make millions off a monkey’s selfies.
However, PETA had other opinions. They stepped forward, simply claiming that Naruto should receive some of the benefits from the publishing. Unfortunately for them, court stated that they are unable to represent an animal in this case, awarding Slater with the win.
After doing more research, the case resulted in a settlement where David Slater is to donate 25% of the revenue from the images to “groups that protect crested macaques and their habitat in Indonesia” (Slotkin, 2017).
It was interesting to see the effects of copyright on wildlife and other formats, beyond the typical book, video, and music discussion. It was also oddly fascinating to see the lengths that people who go to for such topics, as well as the lack of media coverage for the topic at the time, at least per my experience.