P. Diddy Becomes Latest Rap Star to Post a Photographer’s Image Without Credit or Permission

First it was Ludacris, who decided to convey the impression that he was on a beach by stealing and posting a photographer’s beautiful sunset photo on his Instagram account. Now, it seems famed rapper Shawn “Diddy” Combs is following in his copyright infringement footsteps.

Posted to P. Diddy’s IG account on Sunday the 24th and still not removed, the image above was simply captioned with the hashtag #diddyView… which would be okay if the rapper had actually captured the photo or at the very least asked permission to share it and attributed it correctly.

The photo was actually taken by LA-based photographer Cole, who posted this edit on his Instagram account a couple of weeks ago:

In that time, it seems somebody who helps run Mr. Combs Instagram account decided to screencapture the image, crop it (notice the bits of white still left at the bottom of the image) and repost it for some likes… and for all intents and purposes it worked. As of this writing, the picture has over 47,000 likes and some 480+ comments.

Granted, many of those comments are from photographers and photography enthusiasts pointing out that the image is stolen and not properly attributed, but that doesn’t seem to have had any impact on the IG account. For now, the photo is still live.