It seemed a bit serendipitous that as we prepare to roll out a new site called “The Daily Swipe” (NOTE: we moved to innoculous.com after this was posted!), a decision should be made regarding the oft-swiped photo of a monkey, taken by the monkey himself after swiping the photographer’s camera. You’ll be pleased to know that, according to this 1,222-page report from the US Copyright Office, “The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants. Likewise, the Office cannot register a work purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings, although the Office may register a work where the application or the deposit copy state that the work was inspired by a divine spirit.”

No word on the impact this will have on all the monkeys working for free for the nation’s crumbling newspaper empires, or on Fox TV camera crews, but we imagine the ghosts and supreme beings can fend for themselves. If you hadn’t followed this story until now, it was generally swiped from this Kottke.org post first.