Billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, recently settled a dispute with an artist over a farting unicorn image. Tom Edwards, a Colorado-based potter, first released the drawing of a unicorn farting into a pipe to power an electric car in 2010. The mug featuring the image was consistent with the signature light-hearted cartoons of Edwards’ “Wallyware” brand and contained the phrase “electric cars are good for the environment because electricity comes from magic.” The dispute began last year when Musk tweeted a picture of the coffee mug including Edwards’ work with the caption “maybe my favorite mug ever.” A month later, the billionaire tweeted a copy of an identical cartoon image to promote the new sketch pad feature of Tesla, which allows drivers to doodle on a touchscreen. The cartoon also appeared in a Christmas message to Tesla customers.
After Musk released this image, multiple news sources incorrectly reported that Musk designed and created the image. The artist hired an attorney who promptly sent to Tesla “not a cease and desist” letter but rather “an invitation for all parties to continue to benefit from the whimsical, and amazingly spot on piece of imagery” created by the artist. Edwards’ daughter, Lisa Prank, took to Twitter to call Musk out for his use of the images querying “don’t you think artists deserve to be paid for their work?” The Tesla CEO replied that the image was chosen randomly by a software team as a joke. Musk also asserted that it would be “kinda lame” if Edwards were to sue for money and that, if anything, the attention from Tesla “increased his mug sales.” This dispute has since been settled as the Colorado potter aptly noted that Elon Musk is “really really interesting. But he isn’t above copyright law.”