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.
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.
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.