That's not a very endearing way to make your point. If enough people care about the rights of non-human sentient beings, we can envisage (more, better) laws being made protecting their rights. Think of the good the licensing money from this picture could do in e.g. conserving the habitat of that monkey.
I appreciate your comment.
I made those statements particularly to try and evoke a different perspective, they do not reflect how I view/value the monkey in the grand scheme of things. I think what can happen in arguments like this is that people let personal feelings/compassion cloud their judgement. Where does that slippery scale end? What if it was a dolphin that took the picture? A dog? A reptile? A single-cell organism?
Yes, some of those examples are absurd, but they are all non-human organic life forms. Are we saying the more "personable" animals should be extended some human-like copyright rights because we can relate to them in some manner? (the Pulp Fiction conversation about "filthy animals" pops in my head here).
You talk about licensing money, but who would set the licensing fee, collect that fee, and then apply it? I could easily see that becoming a method for lawyers to strip human photographers of copyrights in certain cases and then suck up the majority of the licensing fee for "administrative purposes".
I think the monkey is "cute". I think this is a very interesting case. I do not think legal precedent is on the side of wikipedia. I do not think this is by any means a common enough problem (or will become so) that we need to have exception cases for photographs where the shutter release was pressed by non-human living organisms.
> What if it was a dolphin that took the picture? A dog? A reptile? A single-cell organism?
The 'slippery slope' argument almost never works. Women got the vote and society didn't crumble, au contraire. Dolpins can get some rights now reserved only for humans (e.g. better habitats in which their babies don't die abnormally often), without that same right being extended to reptiles.
> Are we saying the more "personable" animals should be extended some human-like copyright rights because we can relate to them in some manner?
It's a choice. A general principle of awarding these higher-sentience animals some limited form of personhood could improve their circumstances. Perfect is the enemy of the good.
> I do not think this is by any means a common enough problem [...]
> Forget that the monkey is an organic being...
That's not a very endearing way to make your point. If enough people care about the rights of non-human sentient beings, we can envisage (more, better) laws being made protecting their rights. Think of the good the licensing money from this picture could do in e.g. conserving the habitat of that monkey.
For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_personhood