Oscar selfies. Presidential selfies. Monkey selfies.
These cultural sensations briefly held the attention of the entertainment and legal worlds recently, raising questions about ownership and control. Each case holds lessons for photographers, brands, media and personalities.
Copyright protection begins when a work is "fixed" and ownership is given to the "author," the person who created it. For photographs, a work is fixed when the shutter opens and the picture is recorded on film—or in pixels.
Generally speaking, then, the person who snaps the picture owns the copyright. That stranger you asked to take the family photograph on your last vacation? She is the copyright holder. (Don't worry; you may be a co-owner. More on that later.)
Animal Ownership
For selfies, the ownership question appears to have an easy answer. After all, by definition a selfie is a photo one takes of oneself, and possibly others too. So as the one pressing the button—or touching the screen icon—you own your selfies. Case/shutter closed.
Take the "monkey selfie" for example. A primate in Indonesia appropriated the equipment of wildlife photographer David Slater and, while playing with the camera, snapped many digital pictures, including a selfie sporting a broad smile. The image went viral and ended up on Wikimedia Commons, to which Slater directed take-down notices. Wikimedia refused, so Slater threatened to sue. Wikimedia argues a non-human took the photo, so Slater doesn't own the copyright—in fact, no one does.
They have a point.
The Compendium II of Copyright Office Practices says works created "solely" by animals are not copyrightable. The U.S. Copyright Office has refused an attempt to register the photograph, and the draft Compendium III, just issued in August, lists "a photograph taken by a monkey" as an example of a work that cannot be register Contact James Cronin with submissions or questions at jcronin@alm.com.
Narendra Modi, India's favored prime ministerial candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party, holds his party symbol and looks into his phone after casting his vote in Ahmadabad, India, on Wednesday.
The front-runner to be India's next prime minister could wind up in jail for two years after he snapped a selfie and held a press conference outside a polling station on Wednesday.
Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, took a selfie outside a voting center in the state of Gujarat while holding a paper lotus, the symbol of his party. He then held a press conference that various Indian officials said was too close to the polling station to be legal.
