Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk has been outed for blocking anyone who calls him out for posting photographers’ images without permission or credit. Numerous photographers have jumped in to defend Richard Angle, who took the photo that Musk tweeted to his 27 million followers.
Yesterday Musk posted a tweet containing the caption “Ride the lightning!” along with a photo of a lightning strike to his legions of fans. The photo has acquired over 1,200 comments, 6,600 Retweets, and 77,000 likes at the time of writing.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1158915339591155712
Angle, the photographer behind the image in question, has shot many launches throughout his career. He wasn’t credited by Musk for the posting of his photo, besides a tiny watermark that remained in the corner. After Angle tweeted about the lack of credit, the photo community rallied around him, asking Musk to respect copyright and not publish work without permission and credit.
https://twitter.com/RDAnglePhoto/status/1158919455101116416
Musk’s response was less than favorable, in that he has begun blocking anyone tweeting him asking him to credit photographers for their images.
What’s surprising, though, is that Musk appears to be actively blocking those who are calling him out over this copyright issue. One photographer got blocked for for messaging Musk, “You should credit the photographer @RDAnglePhoto.”
Later, Angle added:
I appreciate everyone that said I deserved credit for my work, we all do […] I [I appreciate everyone] who got blocked by Elon. I don’t think you should have, you are just doing what’s right.
I was just about to buy a Tesla! You blew it Elon!
The response about crediting engineers and launch team was interesting. Products of employees and contractors are the intellectual property of the hiring corporation. A photographic/artistic product "should" be the intellectual property of the creator and deserves due credit. Unsure if the familiar false equivalence is brought up because of a misconception about how corporations operate, or an attempt to divert the conversation.
Who is Mr. Musk?
This crackhead now steals photos? First he blows up night skies with his grid of "invisible" satelites, now he starts stealing photos for his own promotion.
Yeah I know, the rocket is his property, the photographer shot something that wasn't his, but still, the photographer made it on a good way, like a cumplement to Space-X work, by making an astonishing shot with that lightning et all, it took time, patience and money to do it. So the bottom line is, the cra...Musk should've respected the photographer and credited him.
Good think that in between buying junk cars I still buy french diesel ones and not electrical sheds.
He doesn't seem to be a fan a copyrights, didn't he stole some unicorn design from an illustrator?
Do we need a property release for shooting that facility?
Sometimes you just need to take a less aggressive approach, such as asking, "Hey Elon, superb picture, I love the awesome way nature and your rocket are shown together. By the way, do you know who is the author?, can you please pass on your compliments, he has done an amazing job of capturing your amazing machine. I hope you've done the smart thing and hired him!"
In today's social media age. Impressions on social media profiles can equal thousands of dollars. He might as well used the image in a print ad with all the attention he got for his personal brand and brands associated with him. This even went viral enough to get even more national exposure. What musk does not realize he is stealing actual money. To use words, images and a idea to give your brand exposure and awareness without paying is stealing. He did that at the cost of the photographers hard work. Shame on him and till someone sues and wins on cases like this, this shit will continue.