The US Copyright Office has determined that no one owns the copyright on the monkey selfie because it was not taken by a human.

By a weird coincidence, the name of the Celebes crested macaque who took the selfie is No One. True fact.

Before making clever joke about monkeys/typewriters, search “infinite monkey selfie.”

Why do articles about no one owning the copyright on the monkey selfie have image credits?

I guess no one can claim copyright on videos taken from a camera stuck on the back of an eagle in flight. That’s a totally awesome video, by the way.

Robots? I’m going to guess that a picture taken by a robot under human remote control can be copyrighted, but pictures taken by an autonomous robot can’t be. What about satellite photos? (As distinct from satellite transmissions.) Videos of rocket launches from the rocket’s perspective? Mars rovers? Videos from autonomous drones? There’s a 1980’s science fiction series by Walter Jon Williams that features tiny autonomous movie cameras used for celebrity stalking (paparazzis). This is already happening.

BTW I refuse to say whether I am a lawyer. “I am not a lawyer” (IANAL) is a scam. Somehow lawyers have gotten non-lawyers to tell other non-lawyers that they need to hire lawyers—genius! But as far as I’m concerned, if lawyers can give bad legal advice, everyone else is allowed to as well.