My guess was the same as the parent poster's -- the pictures of the monkey grabbing the phone, from the phone's point of view, belonged to the tourist, right? Because the phone belonged to the tourist? The photographer must have acquired those rights afterwards. (Although I don't recall the outcome of the copyright case of the monkey that took its own photograph back in 2014...)

They would belong to the monkey, actually! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_disput...

(actually it's very controversial)

Part of a long list of reasons why I will never support Peta.

And for me, part of a long list of reasons I will never be in favor of copyright (unless turned back on itself, as the GPL or other free licenses allow).

Apparently only websites that steal photos feel monkeys can own things.

That concerned pictures taken by the monkey. This is pictures taken by a photographer, with his own camera, by his own will. Nothing remotely disputable.

If you're talking about the picture with the title "Lens inspection", this wasn't shot by an iPhone, but by one of his Nikon cameras: https://500px.com/photo/17629635/Lens-Inspection-by-Marsel-v...