The Checker Maven has had trouble with unethical copyright trolls demanding large payments for the use of some of the images displayed on this site, and we're left battling their outrageous claims. We have long displayed only images that we determined could be freely used, but copyright trolls will attack anything and everything, and it's time consuming and stressful to have to defend the site.

To combat this we've removed all images from the site, certainly not because of copyright violations but as a precaution, until we can replace them with images for which we can easily demonstrate valid licenses. (Copyright trolls don't care if an image is actually licensed or not; they demand proof and threaten dire legal consequences.) This unfortunately will, for a while, reduce the visual appeal of our columns. We apologize in advance. All checker diagrams will of course remain.

We're in the process of rebuilding. So if your favorite characters, like Sal and Marvin, suddenly start looking different, you'll know why.

This will all take quite a long time so please bear with us.

And to you copyright trolls out there, if you're reading this, please be aware that we won't read or further respond to any of your extortionate and ultimately invalid email demands.