A primary reason the photo was so widely viewed and published is the monkey operating the camera.

The sizzle, the legs on this is: monkey selfie, take a look!

Had he taken the photo, the story would have been: photographer takes one in a million photo of rare, difficult to photograph monkey, take a look!

Publishing the former is apparently free. Publishing the latter comes with a royalty.

Would the latter story have the sizzle, legs the former one does, and would publishers have paid?

I feel for him.

But, there is picking battles. He could have walked from it, worked on other photos, kept going.

Had he done that, he would be the guy there when a monkey did something amazing!

But what he did was make sure he is remembered as the guy who tried to own what a monkey did.

In hindsight and as someone not invested at all, that's a mistake, and it expensive, painful, regrettable.

Ouch!

It says he earned a few thousand pounds and recouped his cost upon his return. He would have earned a small amount of money and leveraged on that burst of fame and networking it brought him. Instead he decided to fight a stupid copyright battle. The photo didn't ruin his life, his decisions on what to do with it did.

The only reason he lost any money is that he tried to assert copyright over a photo he didn't take. Don't feel bad for him.

I have no sympathy for him as the damage is nearly entirely self inflicted. Had he not entered a litigious rage over people who weren't even profiting off of the image using it, this would have never happened.

Not even a candle will shine in thee, Babylon.