TCU Daily Skiff 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 Reporter
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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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