Photographs and Memories

I suspect earlier this week if you'd leaned your head out an open window (though closed would have gotten you extra credit under 'degree of difficulty' I suppose) you might have heard Desmond Harris laughing and applauding.  

That's because the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Monkey ©. Nope, Monkey don't. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one might jog your memory. 

Not available as wallet-sized; crested macaques have no pockets

That's Naruto, both the subject of the photo and the photographer. And in this instance, also the subject of a lengthy and contentious court battle over intellectual property rights and the ownership thereof. 

Perhaps your reaction reading that CNN account was one of strained incredulity that living in these litigious times, with so many issues of major if not life-or-death impact facing our jurisprudence system, this stuff has a place on the docket.  

Or perhaps you feel otherwise. And that's the great thing about our country, we can disagree with one another without being disagreeable (or at least we used to be able to do that until we became a nation of snowflakes, SJWs, alt-rights and I have no idea how many other labels and epithets we deploy against each other). 

My favorite part of this story might well be the explanation that a settlement among the parties had been reached before the 9th Circuit Court issued its ruling. Sort of the legal equivalent of the Battle of New Orleans and ending the War of 1812. 

Naruto has opposable thumbs but I, for one, am more grateful for the absence of a different finger that might be offered in reaction and response to how some of the evolutionary higher-ups spend their time and expend their talent.
-bill kenny