Persuading a panel of appellate judges that a monkey can hold a copyright is a tough sell.

And the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit didn't seem to like the “monkey selfie” copyright case any more than Judge William Orrick III did. Not from the sound of Wednesday's oral argument in Naruto v. Slater.

Ninth Circuit Judges Carlos Bea and N. Randy Smith and seemed highly skeptical that Naruto, a crested macaque who lives in an Indonesian jungle, could be an “author” within the meaning of the Copyright Act, even if it did snap the shutter on the now-famous portraits.