Installing (Social) Order

Installing (Social) Order is a blog on the sociology of infrastructure, exploring the sociotechnical nerves of contemporary society.

Monkeys Cannot Take Selfies

Posted on 8 January 2016 by Nicholas

Legally, monkey cannot own his/her/its own selfie (i.e., hold its copyright).

See the Guardian piece — interesting ANT teaching case.

Also, rivers can be people, but a monkey cannot take a selfie — what gives?

8 thoughts on “Monkeys Cannot Take Selfies”

dmf on 9 January 2016 at 15:27 said:

yeah a while back all the intertube kids were excited about “flat” ontologies and “democracies” of objects/species and I kept asking in all seriousness (as serious as one can be while quoting Suess) who will speak for the trees? needless to say they didn’t welcome a reality check or two…

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dmf on 9 January 2016 at 15:24 said:

i’m sure they are well indoctrinated into innovation, disruption, free-markets, etc but have no idea about say patent law/enforcement/trolling, you could use the cases from the whack world of big pharma to talk about public and private goods.
did a tour of duty in the realm of medical ethics in northern NJ and the waters were thick with pharma industry types.

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Nicholas on 9 January 2016 at 15:21 said:

be fun to see the legal justification (or even procedure) for “representing” the river…

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dmf on 9 January 2016 at 15:19 said:

one does wonder if/how the river could have standing in a court case?

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Nicholas on 9 January 2016 at 13:22 said:

Disappearing commons is a good link, lesson-wise.

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Nicholas on 9 January 2016 at 13:21 said:

I do hope we find out — the legal angles opened-up thanks to such a move are quite intriguing

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wooknight on 9 January 2016 at 02:48 said:

Looks like they have no way of legally enforcing protection for the river other than granting it personhood . I wonder if somebody can sue another on behalf of the river for public indecency because they decided to do their business in the river

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dmf on 8 January 2016 at 14:51 said:

heh, let me know if a river asserts property rights, copyright would indeed be a great teaching topic as would a lesson on the disappearing commons, bet yer students take private property as a given like gravity.

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