Finally, an agreement over who owns the rights to that legendary monkey selfie

Never has a selfie triggered such a dispute like the legendary 'monkey selfie', but finally it's bound for a conclusion.

After two years of court battles, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and photographer David Slater reached a settlement in an unprecedented lawsuit over who owns the rights to the selfie of a monkey.

The long-drawn-out process

PETA filed a suit on behalf of Naruto (a 7-year-old crested black macaque who took a selfie in 2011) claiming the animal owned the picture because of the Copyright Act.

David Slater was in Sulawesi, Indonesia on a weekly assignment to take pictures of macaques. Naruto snapped the pictures of himself after Slater mounted the camera on a tripod, catapulting him into internet stardom.

PETA then sued Slater in 2015 claiming the copyright belonged to Naruto under the Copyright Act after the photographer asked Wikipedia to take down one of the pictures which, he argued, had been published without permission.

Wikipedia refused, arguing that the photo was uncopyrightable because it was in the public domain

A judge in January 2016 ruled the act did not apply to animals, but PETA appealed, hence the settlement.

Groundbreaking case

Under the new agreement, Slater has agreed to donate 25% of any future revenue derived from using or selling the monkey selfie to charities that protect the habitat of Naruto and other crested macaques in Indonesia.

“PETA and David Slater agree that this case raises important, cutting-edge issues about expanding legal rights for nonhuman animals, a goal that they both support, and they will continue their respective work to achieve," they said in a joint statement.

"PETA's groundbreaking case sparked a massive international discussion about the need to extend fundamental rights to animals for their own sake, not in relation to how they can be exploited by humans," said PETA lawyer Jeff Kerr.