Wikimedia to vote on 'monkey selfie' debacle

This whole thing is just bananas.

This is just bananas.

Wikimedia is to ask members of its community to vote on whether to take the now-infamous 'monkey selfie'.

The US-based the organisation behind Wikipedia had previously refused photographer David Slater request to take down a selfie claiming that he doesn't own the copyright as a monkey took the photo.

Slater - who is British - was on the Indonesian island of Sulawessi on 2011 taking pictures of black crested macaques when one of them grabbed his camera. When David finally got his camera back, he discovered that hundreds of selfies had been taken, including the below photo of a grinning macaque.

The photo went viral and it was added to Wikimedia Commons, a copyright-free database of images and video that can be used copyright free.

Slater wants the photo taken down arguing that that its inclusion in the online database has affected his livelihood but Wikimedia are arguing that he doesn't own the copyright because it was the monkey who actually took the photo.

Tomasz Kozlowski, who uploaded the image to Wikimedia, told the Telegraph:

“The work did not originate from Mr Slater as by his own admission he did not take the picture, the monkey did. However, monkeys can’t and don’t own copyrights.”

He added: "He has never held copyright to this picture. It wouldn't have been famous if it hadn't been taken by the monkey."

The community which is made up of several dozen users has one week to vote on the issue which has sparked an online debate on intellectual copyright in the internet age.

This whole thing is another reason why taking selfies is complete monkey business.