The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused a request to dismiss the famous “monkey selfie” case, despite an agreement that was reached between the photographer and wildlife group PETA. This means we may finally find out who owns the rights to the image that has spawned countless internet memes.
Back in 2011, nature photographer David Slater was capturing images of the endangered Sulawesi crested macaque in Indonesia. “So I put my camera on a tripod with a very wide angle lens, settings configured such as predictive autofocus, motorwind, even a flashgun, to give me a chance of a facial close up if they were to approach again for a play,” he wrote on his blog. “I was then to witness one of the funniest things ever as they grinned, grimaced and bared teeth at themselves in the reflection of the large glassy lens.”
One of the monkeys, possibly named named “Naruto,” eventually triggered the camera shutter, which resulted in a series of captivating “monkey selfies,” setting off a seven-year legal battle that’s still ongoing. Wikimedia Commons posted the images and claimed they were public domain, saying monkeys can’t own a copyright to a picture they take.
As NPR reported, the U.S. Copyright office even updated its manual in 2014 to reflect that a photograph taken by a monkey is not a “fruit of intellectual labor” and therefore not protected by copyright law.
The court agreed, but PETA appealed the court decision in 2016 on behalf of the monkey, saying the proceeds from Slater’s self-published book should go towards preservation of the endangered species.
Back in September, the two parties came to an agreement that seemed amicable to all and asked the Ninth Circuit to dismiss the case.
In a surprise move the court refused, writing in its decision that, “The grant of a voluntary dismissal is not mandatory, and sometimes neither is it advisable.” The court cited a number of previous cases where humans had attempted to represent animals, as well as other cases that courts had refused to dismiss despite requests from both parties.
The decision makes it seem like the judges were wary of the litigants using the court case for some monkey business of their own, noting that “denying the motion to dismiss and declining to vacate the lower court judgment prevents the parties from manipulating precedent in a way that suits their institutional preferences.”
So it seems Naruto will finally have her day in court, and perhaps Slater can finally get this monkey off his back.
Full-frame cameras tend to be chunky beasts, but Sigma wants to prove that big imaging doesn't need a big body. Enter the Sigma FP2, the successor to its tiny, boxy fp mirrorless camera. It keeps the same modular design but packs in some serious upgrades, including a 24.5-megapixel partially stacked full-frame sensor, improved autofocus, 6K video recording, and 70GB of built-in storage. Sigma calls it the world's smallest full-frame camera, and while it might be tiny, the same cannot be said for its price tag.
Sigma FP2 brings faster shooting and 6K video
A phone thermal camera is one of those tools you don’t think you need until the first time it saves you from an expensive problem, and the Thermal Master P3 just got easier to try. For Halloween, it’s discounted with the code THERMCAM10, a 10% cut that works out to $107 off the total. It’s also fresh off a win at the 2026 Tom’s Guide AI Awards for best phone thermal camera, which is the kind of third-party nod that separates a serious tool from the cheap clip-on sensors that flood this category.
We are nearing Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days, which officially run October 6 and 7. But there is no need to wait until the sale begins to start looking. Early offers are already live, and camera gear is one category where I found enough worthwhile discounts to put together a proper creator-focused list.
I’ve deliberately gone wider than interchangeable-lens cameras here. There are pocket and action cameras, a 360 camera, an instant camera, two wireless microphone systems, and a pair of webcams covering very different budgets. Prices were checked on October 2, and as always with Amazon, they can move quickly.