Ted Frank enters the monkey arena

Mike Masnick, TechDirt:

As we highlighted earlier this week, while it was no surprise that PETA and photographer David Slater worked out a settlement agreement to end the ridiculous lawsuit PETA had filed, it was deeply concerning that part of the settlement involved PETA demanding that the original district court ruling — the one saying, clearly, that animals don’t get copyrights — should be thrown out.

It took just a few days for Frank, on behalf of CEI, to file a wonderful and hilarious amicus brief with the court. There are a bunch of reasons why vacatur is improper here, but the real beauty of this brief is in pointing out that Naruto — the monkey — has been left out of the settlement, and thus not “all parties” have agreed. No, really.

More: CEI. Earlier here, etc.

4 Comments

  • Mr Frank,

    Thank you for your service. I particularly enjoyed your comment that the Competitive Enterprise Institute has the same relationship to Naruto as PETA (none).

    Darrell

  • This seems to mean that PETA isn’t a Best Friend of Naruto at anything above district court.

    Bob

    • No, it means that PETA was never a Best Friend of Naruto and their lawyers and any PETA officials that appeared in court should be charged with criminal contempt for perpetrating a fraud on the court.

  • See previous comment… his name is Bob. He thinks that PETA is a bunch of charlatans and would rather have a bunch of bananas or plantains.