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Chimp, Greek Protesters and UK Porn: Top Three Legal Oddities of December

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Legal initiatives can be strange, but it’s even stranger when they become actual laws. Every country has such laws up its sleeve. Sputnik has picked out this month's legal WTF-moments.

Chimpanzees are not legal persons

Every schoolchild knows it, but the New York Supreme Court has officially confirmed it.

The opposite decision could have drastically changed the life of at least one chimp – Tommy — who leads a lonely life behind a trailer sales park in upstate NY.

Animal rights activists filed a lawsuit trying to free Tommy from imprisonment and send him to a spacier 120-acre ape facility in Florida. 

The Nonhuman Rights Project campaigners tried to assure the court that like most of us, Tommy is "autonomous, self-determined, self-aware, highly intelligent, emotionally complex" and therefore has personhood and deserves some human rights.

But the judges were steadfast and the monkey’s owner defended his right to keep the ape that is being kept in full accordance with the existing law.

However, Tommy still has a chance to improve his living conditions, as the NRP group has decided to file an appeal on the ruling.

UK kids are no longer allowed to watch porn with spanking scenes

The latest UK adult film regulation bans showing certain sex acts to protect minors from possibly harmful content.

In particular, it censors such things as face-sitting, spanking and female ejaculation.

The initiative looks at least odd because: A) minors shouldn’t be exposed to porn at all and B) the regulation affects only the movies made and distributed in the UK, while foreign films are not covered the new rules.

Moreover, the restrictions are seen to be sexist as many of them are female-oriented.

The law’s opponents already held a face-sitting protest near the House of the UK Parliament on Friday.

Protesters could soon face up to €600,000 fine in Spain

The Kingdom of Spain, a country gripped by protests over controversial austerity measures and unemployment, is one step away from toughening the punishment on unwanted demonstrations.

A controversial “gag law”, that has recently passed the lower house of parliament, puts stricter or sometimes even unbearable fines on those who dare to show their disobedience.

The document undermines various penalties for attending the illegal demonstrations from €600 to €600,000 (~$746 to $746,000).

The legislation awaits approval by the country’s Senate, but the chances it may be overturned are seen to be miserable.

The law has already been criticized by Spanish opposition politicians as well as the international community, and has even been compared to those of the country’s ex-dictator Franco.

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