I watched this very closely. It seemed logical that a non-human cannot own a copyright. But I maintain the photographer should own the copyright, since it was his equipment and he retrieved the electronic data from the equipment...
I would agree that in this situation, the photographer should own the copyright on the monkey selfie. I think that while its really neat and cool that monkeys can take selfies and elephants can paint murals with their trunks, the idea of a non-human owning a copyright is absurd. The concepts involved with copyright, such as art, profit, and intellectual property, are essentially human.
I also do not think its fair to the photographer for the image to be a part of the public domain. As you said, it was his equipment, and his being present and allowing the monkey to snatch the camera that allowed the selfie to be taken. Also, he then owned the file of the image on his camera, and had the creative inspiration to publish it. I think that in this case, that artist deserves the rights for that photo.
Similarly, if a person happens to lead an elephant to a blank wall, provides it with paint, and demonstrates how to paint a mural, I think that that person should own the copyright to the mural. I don't think that we should encourage exploiting animals for the sake of art, but in the case of the monkey, the artist has right to claim ownership of the photo.
Here are some articles that talk about the viral monkey selfie copyright:
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/monkey-selfie-cant-be-copyrighted-u-s-regulators-confirm-n186296
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/22/monkey-business-macaque-selfie-cant-be-copyrighted-say-us-and-uk
I also do not think its fair to the photographer for the image to be a part of the public domain. As you said, it was his equipment, and his being present and allowing the monkey to snatch the camera that allowed the selfie to be taken. Also, he then owned the file of the image on his camera, and had the creative inspiration to publish it. I think that in this case, that artist deserves the rights for that photo.
Similarly, if a person happens to lead an elephant to a blank wall, provides it with paint, and demonstrates how to paint a mural, I think that that person should own the copyright to the mural. I don't think that we should encourage exploiting animals for the sake of art, but in the case of the monkey, the artist has right to claim ownership of the photo.