The Checker Maven is having 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 dubious 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.

As an interim and not very good solution, we removed all images that were here before 2025, certainly not because of copyright violations but as a precaution to reduce the attack surface. The appeal of the "back issues" of our site will unfortunately be reduced. We apologize in advance. All checker diagrams will of course remain.

Longer term we'll be replacing many images with either AI generated material, certified public domain material, or properly attributed Creative Commons material. So if your favorite characters, like Sal and Marvin, suddenly start looking different, you'll know why.

This will all take a long time (months and maybe years) 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 respond to any of your extortionate and ultimately invalid email demands.