聯邦法官裁定 猴子不擁有自拍照版權

An Indonesian monkey that achieved Internet celebrity with a grinning selfie cannot own the photograph’s copyright, a federal judge said this week.

本週（1月3日至9日），美國一位聯邦法官稱，因大笑自拍在網上走紅的一隻印尼猴子不擁有照片的版權。

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had argued in United States District Court in San Francisco that the rights to the photograph, which was snapped using a photographer’s unattended camera, rightfully belonged to the monkey, a crested macaque.

善待動物組織(Ethical Treatment of Animals)在舊金山的美國地方法院爲這隻黑冠獼猴爭取照片所有權。照片是這隻猴子用攝影師故意放在那裏的相機自拍的。

In a tentative opinion on Wednesday, Judge William H. Orrick disagreed.

週三（1月6日），威廉·H·奧裏克法官(William H. Orrick)在一份初步意見書上對他們的主張表示反對。

“While Congress and the president can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans,” he wrote, “there is no indication that they did so in the copyright act.”

他寫道：“雖然國會和總統可以把法律保護的範圍擴展到不同人羣甚至動物身上，但是在版權方面他們沒有這樣做過。”

The images were taken during a trip by the British photographer, David Slater, to the Tangkoko Reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in 2011. He put his camera on a tripod amid a troop of macaques, setting it so it would automatically focus and wind, and waited for the animals to get curious.

那些照片是英國攝影師大衛·斯萊特(David Slater)2011年在印度尼西亞蘇拉威島的Tangkoko保護區(Tangkoko Reserve)拍攝的。他把相機放在三腳架上，設爲自動對焦，置於一羣獼猴中間，等待它們產生好奇心。

The results included the charming mug of the monkey, identified by PETA as a 6-year-old male, Naruto, grinning broadly and bucktoothed into the lens.

拍出的照片包括這隻猴子迷人的笑臉。善待動物組織認出他是一隻6歲大的公猴，綽號火影忍者(Naruto)。他對着鏡頭大笑，露出門牙。

Mr. Slater published a book, “Wildlife Personalities,” that included the pictures, and the images were widely shared online, including without permission by Wikipedia. When Mr. Slater asked the crowd-sourced website to remove the image, it refused under much the same rationale as PETA: Mr. Slater didn’t press the shutter release, so the image was not his.

斯萊特出了一本名爲《野生動物的個性》(Wildlife Personalities)的書，收錄了這些照片。這些照片在網上廣爲流傳，維基百科(Wikipedia)也未經授權用了照片。斯萊特要求這家由衆人編輯的網站撤掉這張照片，該網站以與善待動物組織相似的理由拒絕了他：照片不是斯萊特拍的，所以不歸他所有。

In September, PETA filed its lawsuit against Mr. Slater, his company, and Blurb, the company that published his book, asking the judge to allow it to represent Naruto and distribute the image’s proceeds for the benefit of the Indonesian reserve’s crested macaques, a critically endangered species.

去年9月，善待動物組織起訴斯萊特以及他的公司及其出版商Blurb，要求法官允許該組織代表火影忍者將照片的收益用於保護印度尼西亞保護區的嚴重瀕危物種黑冠獼猴。

The photographer’s lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that a monkey lacks legal standing. Its motion, at times, struck a mocking tone.

這位攝影師的律師們請求法官撤回起訴，理由是猴子沒有法律地位。這份動議書不時帶有揶揄口吻。

“A monkey, an animal-rights organization and a primatologist walk into federal court to sue for infringement of the monkey’s claimed copyright. What seems like the setup for a punch line is really happening.”

“一隻猴子、一個動物權利保護組織和一位靈長類動物學家走進聯邦法院，起訴這隻猴子所謂的版權遭到侵犯。這聽起來像是一則笑話的開頭，沒想到還真發生了。”

Judge Orrick explained from the bench on Wednesday that he had no authority to extend such rights to animals.

週三（1月6日），奧裏克法官在法庭上解釋說，他無權將這樣的權利賦予動物。

“This is an issue for Congress and the president,” he said, according to Ars Technica. “If they think animals should have the right of copyright, they’re free, I think, under the Constitution, to do that.”

據Ars Technica網站稱，奧裏克法官說：“這是國會和總統的事。如果他們認爲動物應該擁有版權，那麼我覺得按照憲法，他們有權這樣做。”

Last July, another legal effort to reinterpret the rights of other primates failed to persuade a judge. The Nonhuman Rights Project argued in a State Supreme Court in Manhattan that two apes being held by a university for research were “legal persons,” highly intelligent and self-aware, and should be removed to a sanctuary. The judge took the case seriously, but ultimately decided that under the law, Hercules and Leo were property, not people.

去年7月，另一次重新闡釋其他靈長類動物權利的法律行動也沒有贏得法官的支持。非人類權利計劃(Nonhuman Rights Project)在曼哈頓的州最高法院要求釋放一所大學拘禁的兩隻用作研究的類人猿，稱它們是“法人”，具有很高的智商和自我意識，應該被送往保護區。那位法官認真對待這一案件，但是最終判定，依照法律，赫爾克里士(Hercules)和利奧(Leo)是財產，不是人。

Despite PETA’s setback this week, the group cast its unorthodox legal battle as a crucial step toward enlarging the rights of animals.

儘管本週善待動物組織遇到了挫折，但是該組織認爲自己的非正統法律訴訟是擴大動物權利的重要一步。

“We will continue to fight for Naruto and his fellow macaques,” Jeff Kerr, an attorney for PETA, said in a statement, adding “As my legal mentor used to say, ‘In social-cause cases, historically, you lose, you lose, you lose, and then you win.’”

善待動物組織的律師傑夫·克爾(Jeff Kerr)在聲明中說：“我們將繼續爲火影忍者和他的同伴爭取權利。”他還說，“就像我的法律導師過去常說的，‘從歷史角度看，社會事業方面的案子，總是敗訴、敗訴、敗訴，堅持到最後就是勝利。’”