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Tueday,
April 13, 2004 |
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Picture
continues to pester school officials
Administrators
are frustrated that a photo with part of the university
name plate has not been removed from an escort service
Web site.
By
Angelica
Rosas
Staff Reportero
Administration officials are pressuring Web site owners
of a Dallas escort service to remove the picture of “Sunny,”
an escort posing in a purple and white cheerleader uniform
on top of a university name plate, from its escort site.
Chancellor Victor Boschini wants the TCU likeness removed
immediately and is working with school lawyers to ask
the Web site host to withdraw the image from the site.
On March 30, Sunny promised the school’s lawyers
that she would remove the picture as soon as technically
possible. The picture would be gone within three to seven
days, she told lawyers.
That was almost two weeks ago, and at the end of the business
day Monday, the picture remains posted to the Dallas-Eros
Web site.
“Legally, no one can use the TCU logo or name without
permission,” Boschini said. “It is just a big
frustration but I will go down any route to work it out.”
Lawyers are sending a letter to the company hosting Dallas-Eros.com
to request photo removal of any picture linking TCU to
the site, said Robert Ginsburg, of McDonald Sanders P.C.
“We will send the letter either today or tomorrow,”
Ginsburg said. “We believe the picture is a violation
and tarnishes the TCU name.”
Ginsburg said he does not know how the company will respond
because the site has a legal disclaimer abdicating any
legal responsibility for what advertisers choose to post.
The company or Sunny could not be reached for comment.
The TCU police were the first to contact Sunny when the
picture surfaced March 25 in an e-mail link sent to school
administration, TCU police and the TCU Daily Skiff.
The TCU police decided to hand the case over to McDonald
Sanders P.C. when Sunny did not comply with the 24-hour
deadline they issued. Later, Sunny told Skiff reporters
that she did not remove the picture because the TCU police
threatened her.
Ginsburg said that although only a portion of “Christian
University” is shown in the picture, the purpose
is still to associate the site with the university.
Boschini said he wants to avoid a lawsuit.
“Legal action would cost a lot of money and if it’s
money that I can spend on students then I want to get
this taken care of without legal expenses,” Boschini
said. “And Sunny knows that I have an $800 million
dollar endowment behind me.”
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