Company steals comic's artwork to use as an ad

A comedian has hit out after a pet supply company stole one of her cartoons and used it as an advert.

Hertfordshire-based Viovet lifted one of Bec Hill’s cartoons from the internet, removed her surname from her signature, and slapped their own website address on it.

The edited picture – showing a cat-lover at a Catholic meeting with the caption ‘Five minutes in, Colin suddenly realised he had mis-read the sign’ – went viral, attracting almost 300,000 views on the link-sharing site Reddit

Its spread prompted Hill to spread her own message: ‘STOLEN!!! If you see this baby doing the rounds, PLEASE credit me! This company illegally edited it and put their website on it.’

She told Chortle she was going to send the online veterinary supply company a bill for the unauthorised use of the image.

Hill, an Australian now based in the UK, said: ‘A copy of my cartoon has now had countless hits with their website link on it and nothing to link people to my actual work.

‘I've given people permission to print and share the cartoon elsewhere with a link to my work. I don't mind as long as I'm asked first and it's not edited in any way. I see it as promotion for myself but I've never had someone use it for their own professional or financial gain.

‘I'm contacting them with a formal, polite letter and am going to invoice them for the advertising it has already done for them.

The annoying thing is, I would have been happy for them to post the original on their site – without their link watermarked on it, of course. That way thousands, upon thousands of people would be seeing and sharing my work, rather than seeing an advert for an online pet supply store which I have no connection with whatsoever.’

The original appeared on Hill’s Tumblr account with the copyright notice: ‘All comics and ideas within are the intellectual copyright of Bec Hill. If you wish to use any of these cartoons for anything more than re-blogging, please contact me via the button below.’

Viovet also posted the cartoon on their Facebook page, prompting an outraged backlash from dozens of Hill’s supporters.

Among them were Pat Murray, who said: ‘Wow stealing from struggling artists. How hard is it to give credit for IP where it's due? Shame on you Viovet.’

Julia Clarke added: ‘Please do the right thing and make creative people WANT to continue to be creative. The person who drew this is wonderful and deserves her work to be acknowledged and used respectfully.’

And Angus Hodge said: ‘You've set a precedent. Tomorrow I'm going to steal many, many Viovet products that you worked hard on, and Photoshop my own logo onto them all. That's ok right?’

Viovet have subsequently apologised on Hill's own Facebook page, with one employee called Richard saying: 'I didn't realise I was breaking any laws by doing so I'm really sorry if it has upset anyone especially the artist Bec Hill. I'll try to contact her and apologise.'

John Cousins, whose son Luke started the online company, added: 'Essentially someone from VioVet copied an image they found on the internet and reproduced it on Facebook. The image they copied had already had Bec's surname removed, though our guy had no idea about that.

'It was just intended to be amusing, nothing else. This was an inadvertent error on our part and the person responsible has learnt quite a lot through it happening.

'VioVet will not do this sort of thing again without proper and full acknowledgment/permission. We also hope we can make Bec Hill feel a bit less unhappy about what has happened already.'

By coincidence, the pun at the heart of Hill’s cartoon is the same as a gag told by Milton Jones.

Hill said: ‘Unfortunately, when it comes to puns and wordplay, it's difficult not to accidentally tread on people's toes – I know this all to well from running Pun Run. Hopefully Milton understands that sometimes two people will come up with the same premise.’

Published: 16 Jan 2013