THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2007
NEWS
5A
>> ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
Unlicensed T-shirt dispute continues
Athletics Department, Joe-College.com schedule meeting for next month
BY THOR NYSTROM
tnystrom@kansan.com
Round two in the ongoing fight between the Athletics Department and a local T-shirt vendor is scheduled for Sept. 28. The mediation is expected to be a brief but tense prelude to an inevitable trial.
"I am not going to budge from where I am at," Sinks said. "I am in too deep. I have spent too much money fighting it. I didn't realize it would cost that much, but to me it is a matter of right and wrong."
The session is designed to pursue an out-of-court settlement or alternative. But Larry Sinks, owner of Joe-College.com, said he planned to take the lawsuit to court.
The University cited trademark infringement in the early-March lawsuit.
Sinks claimed that Lew Perkins told members of the community his intention was to shut down Joe-College. Associate Athletic Director Jim Marchiony denied the claim.
"Personally I think that guy (Perkins) should be fired over this," Sinks said. "I just think it's time for him to go. He doesn't have any compassion toward anybody. All he does is drive around town in his brand
new red Corvette all day. He doesn't care that it is wrecking my life or my wife's life or my kids' lives. I've seen him since. He says hello with a smirk. He's too good to come to common civility."
Sinks said he attempted to reason with Perkins during a chance golf partnering at the Lawrence Country Club this summer. Sinks said he was rebuffed.
Sinks said the issue was entirely about money.
"Of course I think it's about the money," Sinks said. "Everything else about Lew is about the money."
Marchiony said the Athletic Department's policy was to aggressively protect the marks of the University.
"A large percentage of the revenue that is generated from the sale of licensed products goes to student scholarships on campus." Marchiony said. "Every purchase of an unlicensed shirt is money that is not going to student scholarships. We feel very strongly about that."
The University has objections beyond monetary compensation and trademark infringement. T-shirts stating 'Our Coach can eat Your Coach', 'Muck Fizzou,' and 'Kansas Swim Team,' featuring sperm cells
were specifically mentioned in the lawsuit. Marchiony said the messages were in poor taste and cast a bad light on the school.
Signs in the Joe College store make it clear they have no affiliation with the school. One reads: "Warning: If you want to buy licensed Univ. of Kansas merchandise, please shop somewhere else!!" Another says: "These shirts are not licensed by anyone or anybody!! If you do not understand this, please do not purchase anything in this store."
Shirts in the store have the words Hawk' and 'Kansas' on them, both of which are not marks protected by the University.
"You will not find the word Jayhawk or the phrase Kansas University on any product in this store," manager Erin Adams said.
Sinks said Perkins was unfairly using taxpayers' money to attack his store.
"It would be different if it was his money, but it isn't," Sinks said "It's the University of Kansas' money and state of Kansas' money. If everybody knew the money he was taking away from scholarships with this lawsuit, there would be outrage. It's ridiculous. They hired this high-powered law firm in Atlanta to come after us, and I guarantee they have spent
three times what I have."
Sinks said he has spent in excess of $130,000 on lawyers, expert witnesses and surveys.
- Marchiony denied the claim that the lawsuit was taking money from scholarships.
"That claim doesn't make sense," Marchiony said. "Kansas Athletics receives a miniscule amount of its budget from tax dollars and basically what he is doing, by saying that, it is a ploy to deflect attention away from what he is doing."
Marchiony said scholarship money actually comes from revenue that is gained from the sale of licensed products, which Sinks is taking from by selling unlicensed shirts.
Sinks said he hears support every day from Lawrence citizens.
"Right now, the thing is making me go broke," Sinks said. "It's an ugly deal. We are struggling very badly in trying to afford the lawsuit. But what do you do? This is how I make my living."
Sinks said he would "absolutely" file a counter suit to recoup legal fees if the lawsuit was thrown out.
The trial is scheduled for mid- January 2008.
— Edited by Elizabeth Cattell
》 BOMB THREAT
Threatening phone calls target Dillons stores
Hutchinson customers, employees held hostage
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HUTCHINSON — An unknown telephone caller making bomb threats to a Dillons grocery store kept more than 100 people hostage, demanding they disrobe and that the store wire money to his bank account.
Police safely led the 46 employees and 64 customers, some of whom had taken off their clothes, out of that store Tuesday after about 90 minutes. Threatening calls also were made to a second Dillons store that same day in Hutchinson, which was evacuated without incident.
On Wednesday, three similar calls came in to Dillons stores and one to a Wal-Mart, said police Lt. Steven Nelson. Police still are unsure if Wednesday's incidents were linked or copycat crimes.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dillons grocery store employee stand in the parking lot after a bomb threat Wednesday in Hutchinson. An unknown telephone caller made the bomb threats to the store and kept more than 100 people hostage, demanding that they undress and that the store money we rent to his bank account
No one was injured and no money was paid, police said.
In Newport, R.I., on Tuesday a bomb threat caused the evacuation of a Wal-Mart and led employees to wire $10,000 to the caller. FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said the incident appeared related to a plot in recent days targeting banks and stores near Phoenix, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia.
"If they can access the Internet, they can get to anything," said Hutchinson police Chief Dick Heitschmidt. "Anyone in the whole world could have access, if that's what really happened."
The caller to the Hutchinson store where more than 100 people were held for 90 minutes appeared to have visual access to the store. Law enforcement officials were investigating whether the caller was out of state and may have hacked into the store's security system.
Kolko said Wednesday that the bureau was looking into whether the calls were being placed from overseas and was compiling reports from local police departments to look for similarities between the cases.
The caller demanded the female hostages take off their clothes and after 20 minutes made a similar demand of the males.
Jim Peterson, one of the hostages,
said some compiled out of fear.
"A lot of women were really embarrassed being exposed," said Walter Merian, another hostage. "It
already was scary enough without adding the embarrassment."
The manager pleaded with the caller not to harm anyone in the store, Peterson said.
"He was just beside himself," Peterson said. "Everyone was really scared. We didn't know if there was a bomb."
Dillons spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie said the company brought counselors to the scene.
"We're sorry the employees and the customers had to go through this." Lowrie said.
No bomb was found.
BOOKSTORE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
love it, but that is not the case," Muggy said. "These books have no buyback value, and the students are having to pay more for brand new books."
Hierl said the additional content helped students perform better in the courses. However, these extra materials, including a bound notebook of the lecture notes, do have added costs
"It isn't going to be free, but nothing else you have to buy is either if you have to buy paper and ink to print these notes off at home," Hierl said. "A publishing company can do the whole thing at a fraction of the cost, and students will have it at day one"
Hierl
Jared Gorman, a student in Hierl's "Foundations of Chemistry I" course, said he thought having the notebook of course notes was helpful.
"It makes it easier to take notes, because you don't have to write every single thing down," Gorman, Independence
independence senior said.
Hierl said the grades in his courses have increased considerably in the past few years, with the number of students earning an "A" increasing from 10.5 percent in 2004 to 25.3 percent
"These books have no buyback value, and the students are having to pay more for brand new books."
little more than baby sitters of classes of 1,000 to 2,000 kids."
"They get feedback more quickly and accurately, and don't have to depend on turning papers in," Postma-Carttar said.
BILL MUGGY
Owner of Jayhawk Bookstore
in 2006. He said this was mainly due to more study guides, review sessions, homework assignments and availability of practice exams.
For the past two years, Spanish courses at the University of Kansas have used an online program that goes along with students' textbooks. For "Intermediate Spanish I" and "Intermediate Spanish II" textbooks, the online portion costs an additional $47.97. Rosalea Postma-Cartart, associate specialist for the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, thinks the additional material is beneficial.
Brad Heins, store manager of University Bookshop, said that buying revised versions did limit the availability of used textbooks. However, he said they only received complaints when students had to buy additional materials that weren't used.
"Other instructors and other departments need to truly look into this and see if they need the additional packets, clickers to sign in and online tools," Muggy said. "These professors are becoming
"I think instructors should be allowed to choose the material they want," Heins said. "But if they choose new technology, it's very important that they utilize it."
But Muggy is concerned that publishing companies are just making more money by printing these notebooks and students are having to pay more for them in return.
Although Muggy said he didn't deny instructors' rights to choose
their books and how they want to teach, he said that when students can only buy their books new, it was an unfair cost.
"The importance of competitiveness of the bookstores is serving the students and
finding the best value for them, whether it's through customer service, availability of used books or special ordering," Muggy said. "Those are the values that I will always maintain."
Hierl said that his new material was there to meet students' demands and to help them succeed in the course.
"If it's the difference between an 'A' and a 'C', I think it's worth doing," Hierl said. "I would pay $14.95 if it meant getting an 'A'."
Edited by Meghan Murphy
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