Techdirt: We've written many, many words on the ridiculousness of publicity rights, and how they're frequently abused to stifle perfectly reasonable activities. But this latest example really takes it up a notch. The owner of a horse in the UK is apparently demanding some of the prize a man won in a "selfie" contest, because the horse made a key "photobombing" appearance in the background
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Just when I thought one legal battle about a selfie was enough (the monkey selfie) apparently there is also this. First of all, I don’t believe the horse’s owners would’ve submitted a photo to the contest if they’d known about it. I believe that in retrospect, knowing that the photo with the horse did win the contest, it seems obvious to them that they would’ve, but in reality, I doubt they would’ve heard “selfie contest” and decided to take a selfie with their horse. Also, the winners got a family vacation, it is a great prize, but it isn’t millions of dollars. Additionally, the horse’s owners didn’t put effort into the photo, they just happened to have a horse. What I can’t help but wonder is why the owner of the horse is so upset. Is it about the prize money, the fact she didn’t want her horse photographed, or some combination of the two? Either way, all she is doing is hurting the family who took the photo by dragging them into this mess when they didn’t do anything wrong.
This whole issue is ridiculous. I really like how the article was funny and thought the owner of the horse was just as crazy as they actually were. There would be no reason they should get the money, which was not even the price because they did not take the picture. Yes it is there horse, but that does not mean they own the rights to the horse in a picture. The statement about knowing about the contest would have changed how they acted and they might have entered with the horse is ridiculous because I doubt they would have caught the horse making the same face if they took a selfie with it. The little boy just got lucky that the horse made that face as soon as he took the picture. The owner was probably just mad that someone won a nice prize with his horses help and he did not.
Yet another publicity rights saga on the PTM blog. This whole situation is ridiculous. The owner of the photo is also the owner of the rights to the photo. It's not like the horse's owner trained the horse to pose for the photo. The person that took the photo has the rights to it. I cannot believe there is another issue just like the monkey selfie. However, I do believe the monkey selfie was more ridiculous, since no one owns the photo but the monkey. But that's all in the past. Now we have a new animal photo to argue about. The horse didn't take the picture. If the horse had opposable thumbs and didn't have hooves that would crush the phone and actually physically COULD take the selfie, then the owner would have the rights to the photo. However, that's not what happened. The horse is the background in the photo. Make these ridiculous articles stop.
This is such a weird situation, but obviously the owner of the horse has no legal standing in this case. If the law is clear about photographing animals in public places then the owner shouldn't even be trying to raise this case. The only reason they did this was to try and make some easy money that wasn't even there. Usually they wouldn't have cared at all about a family taking a cute picture together, but as soon as money became a possibility they lashed out. You would think that they would put in a little bit a of time to find out that there wasn't even really cash involved. At this point all they're doing is victimizing a family who are just trying to enjoy a nice vacation together, and now it's just reflecting poorly on the owner's character.
This is just stupid. If the 3 year old kid and his father didn't win the selfie context, the owner of the horse wouldn't have demanded the publicity rights/copyrights. Even if they had asked the owner for permission before they took the selfie, I'm sure the owner would've said yes. The owner is just obviously jealous of the prize that they won. Although many copyright/publicity rights situations are very icky and debatable today, this is just ridiculous and funny. On a side note, this horse is so cute and if the s/he could talk I'm sure s/he would definitely happily side with the father & son who took the selfie.
This is just getting ridiculous, first a monkey and now a horse. The whole situation is only slightly less absurd than someone winning a selfie contest in front of my house and then me suing them because my house may have contributed to their win (and its only less crazy because the horse may have actually helped them). I agree with Sophie that if the 3 year old and his dad hadn’t won the owner of the horse wouldn’t be making such a fuss. Beyond that who sues a parent a little kid while trying to claim to be the person that been wronged? I mean come on, you just come off like an asshole doing that, it costs them nothing to let the kid and his dad have their vacation but they’d rather be greedy and try to act like they’ve been wronged. As for their argument that if they’d known about the contest they would have entered the picture themselves, well I have doubts that a random adult taking that picture with a horse that they clearly own would have gotten the same result as a little kid and his dad taking with a horse that is clearly acting in the spur of the moment.
After hearing people talking about this article in studio earlier this week, I knew that I wanted to comment on this article. This is a really stupid issue. The horse owner does not have any property right over the photo. Technically, the three year old kid owns the picture, as he is the one that took it. The owner of the horse is just a really shallow, selfish, jealous person. She should be happy for this father and son and the memories they will make off of their good fortune. I think that this debate over ownership is really ridiculous. There is no legality to her case, as taking a picture from a public path is clearly okay to do without anyone’s permission. I hope that the father and son are still able to enjoy their prize, as I am sure that they deserve it.
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