This week in class we learned the tricky business of intellectual property law. We were told about the differences between Trademarks and Tradenames, Fair use and Fair play. We were only required to do one thing for this class, to research and present a story about copyright. Many just chose to speak about stolen lyrics or altered tunes, except for row between Lindor and Haribo about Golden Bears. Myself, I remembered a story my English teacher had told me years ago. A story many of my classmates will remember for a long while to come.
A famous photographer named David Slater was exploring the jungles to find and take interesting photos about the wildlife. He stumbled upon a pack of macaques where one of them stole his camera and began to take a few ‘selfies’. Unknown’st to him this would go on to become his most famous but also his most detrimental photo.
Mr. Slater went on to win a few awards for this interesting pic. He expected this to be his big income for the year. After he notices that he isn’t getting a lot of offers for the photo he finds out the image has been all over Wikipedia. He begins a lawsuit for them to take the image down, saying that he has missed out on roughly £10,000. Then, Wikipedia dropped a bombshell on Slater’s dreams.
Whoever takes the photo has intellectual property of the image. If they are not human, then no one has ownership of the photo and it was a macaque that actual press the button.
The case was taken to the High Courts, where Slater lost, losing any money that he had initially made from the photo. PETA also made a foolish attempt to give the intellectual property to the specific macaque but that was turned down.
I always like telling this story because it sounds so ridiculous. I think that it is very important for classes to be like this, explaining things in the most extreme, far-fetched but true ways possible. This is what grabs and educates a class and maybe sparks an interest for a least one student in that room.
Future Failed Writer 