> think a case could be made that a monkey [...] can own rights to their work This was actually decided already. PETA sued on behalf of the monkey, and lost. T

> think a case could be made that a monkey [...] can own rights to their work This was actually decided already. PETA sued on behalf of the monkey, and lost. The courts ruled that only humans can own copyrights. However, the issue of whether the photograph is copyrighted by the photographer or in the public domain was not decided. Personally I think that the photographer could likely win the copyright based on the effort he put into the setup, if he got a good enough lawyer.