We all know selfies are inane, unless they’re taken by Lord Vader of course. But Vader notwithstanding, we’ve all seen the dumb trends – from selfies of people wrapped in cellophane to the dreaded Duckface. Or any of these. And, well, all of these. They’ve been analyzed sociologically, and even linked to mental illness. But now, thanks to a wildlife photographer and a dispute with Wikipedia, an issue has cropped up over selfie ownership. It sounds pretty easy, Wikipedia’s stance is that whoever took the selfie owns it, which makes perfect sense. You take a selfie of (obviously) yourself, you own it, even if other people are in it.

But consider the ‘selfie’ below:

According to this article on itv.com (from which the above image was lifted), this image was taken by the monkey itself when it swiped wildlife photographer David J. Slater‘s camera. The picture was a huge hit around the world, of course, perhaps the only animal selfie ever taken, and nicely framed to boot! Plus, my Chinese zodiac is the monkey, so I have an affinity for it right away.

Mr. Slater wants ownership of the picture which Wikipedia is now using without recompense to the photographer, because they believe it is public since the monkey took it, and even if it wasn’t it would actually be owned by the monkey since it took the selfie in the first place.

The whole thing is just bizarre. I mean, if your dog or cat or ferret inadvertently snaps a selfie of itself, do they own it? Perhaps it could be re-framed as an issue of who owns the device and the intent behind the image. I don’t know, but what I do know is this is one of the most bizarre intellectual property, technology and ownership stories I’ve ever seen.

I’ll just add it to the list of reasons I don’t take selfies.