Back in June last year I posted a blog entitled Internet Purgatory which was all about a strange “Friend Request” I had received on Facebook, purportedly, from an old girlfriend of my brother Henry; odd indeed as the lady had died over four years ago! At the end of my humorous account (my husband Chris and his quips!) I had added a few photographs and two funny cartoons which had originally come to my attention via social media. 

Bloggers beware! Apparently, some people are deliberately putting out material that is likely to be picked up and used innocently – and without any financial gain or stolen glory – by bloggers such as myself. For what purpose? To extort money from the unsuspecting blogger on the grounds of stolen copyright. They frighten you with emails and letters threatening to take you to court unless you pay up over £200 (taking the little cartoon off your post is not enough – they want recompense for the several smiles that may have resulted when some of your readers clicked on the image). Then you phone them (PicRights.com who represent CartoonStock Ltd) and tell them that you’re just a poor blogger sharing a laugh and not benefiting in any way from the use of the precious image, and a nice lady agrees, and is quite sympathetic – she can see you are telling the truth – but she is powerless to stop her employers from taking you to court because, strictly speaking, you have broken the copyright law. She can accept no less than £60 to resolve the matter and “think yourself lucky” – after all, it could have been so much more!

So, if any cartoons come your way over the Internet, do scrutinise with a magnifying glass for the CartoonStock Ltd logo and avoid like the plague. Or if you are really unscrupulous, and an artist, and you want to make some easy money, draw some vaguely comical cartoons and place them in the hands of CartoonStock Ltd. They are doing a grand job of causing Internet Hell.