Another Day, Another Cartoon Ripped Off

I was going to the store to buy a bot of wine. Minding my own business. This was going to be a quick in-and-out errand. But, thanks to cartoons, it didn't work out that way.

Not "thanks to cartoons" per se, but thanks to people who presumably take cartoons without permission or payment to further their profit-making business. For instance: here's a cartoon -- a cartoon by J.C. Duffy for CartoonStock on this poster posted in the grocery store.

You can see it has words on it to the effect that the store did not ask for reproduction rights. If an agreement was made, they would print a version without the watermark on it, yes?

This is what I saw when I walked into the store: the store ripping off a cartoonist.

Out of frame, when snapping this photo, was a bench and a woman sitting in it. She looked at me suspiciously while I was taking this photo.

I don't know what (if anything) Cartoonstock will do to pursue this. I hope that they will when and if they see this. This is a large grocery chain in the Northeast.

Thanks to cartoons -- maybe I should have bought two bots of wine.

Related: Buzzfeed takes a Matt Bors cartoon without his permission, posts it and will not compensate. Poynter has the story:

Bors billed BuzzFeed for the unauthorized use, which BuzzFeed Editorial Director Jack Shepherd told Poynter in an phone call the site took down as soon as they learned about it. (BuzzFeed spokesperson Ashley McCollum told Poynter in an email that BuzzFeed will not pay Bors’ bill.)

So, now, here is a major site taking other people's content and not asking permission nor paying for it.

My take: I don't care if a person takes one of my cartoons and posts it to Facebook just for fun. But a business knows better.

Is the whole world like that lady on the bench, stink-eyeing me passively when I draw attention to a corporation taking a cartoon without the cartoonist's permission? 

Hope not.