Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Friday, October 17, 2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Ian Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
Investigating,
protecting self
helps to prevent
common issues
Editor's note: This commentary is part of the Emerald's and
ASUO Legal Services' ongoing efforts to assist students through ed
ucation as well as representation. ASUO Legal Services' attorneys
are licensed to practice in the state of Oregon. Information dissemi
nated in this article does not constitute legal advice and does not
create an attorney/client relationship. For legal advice, contact an
attorney licensed in your state. You should not make legal hiring de
fore engaging in transactions that seem to provide a fair share
of problems for students: car purchases, hiring contractors for
home or appliance repairs, and Internet purchases.
Buying a used car
When buying from a dealer, get a written warranty covering 100
percent of repair costs for at least thirty days.
When buying from a private party, the car is typically being sold
"as is." This means that if the car breaks down on your way home,
that is your problem.
The seller cannot, however, make affirmative misrepresenta
tions about the condition of the vehicle. Therefore, ask as many
specific questions as possible, i.e., is anything wrong with the
transmission? In addition, ask the following general questions:
• What kinds of repairs have been necessary?
• Are there any defects that aren't obvious?
• Is there anything you haven't told me?
• Why are you selling the car?
If the seller lies about anything specific, you may be able to pur
sue a fraud case against them.
In addition, take the car to your own mechanic for an inspec
tion and diagnostic test.
GUEST
COMMENTARY
cisions based upon brochures, advertising
or other promotional materials.
Students, like other members of
the community, need products and
services of all kinds. Below are a few
protective measures you can take be
Repairs to home and appliances
Before spending a lot of money on a plumber, contractor
or repair person, do some investigation. First, make sure you
can find a street address; it often will not appear in the phone
book advertisement, but may be included in the actual list
ing. If anything goes wrong and you need to pursue legal
remedies against an individual or business, it helps to have
their physical location. You cannot serve legal papers on a
post office box.
Second, check with any regulating board or agency and the
Better Business Bureau to determine whether complaints have
been lodged against the provider. Construction contractors
and*plumbers are regulated by the Construction Contractors
Board (www.ccb.state.or.us), which can tell you whether the
provider is currently licensed and about the provider's com
plaint history. Licensed contractors should also be bonded
and insured.
Internet purchases
When making a purchase online, you should always be
come familiar with the seller. Check with state and local con
sumer protection agencies and the Better Business Bureau for
information on the seller. In Oregon, the State Attorney Gen
eral's Office operates a consumer information hotline: (877)
877-9392 (toll free) or consumer.hotline@doj.state.or.us (e
mail 24 hours).
Once you have decided to make a purchase, use a credit
card. Never use a debit card. Although online payment services
can be convenient, they generally do not get involved in cfc
putes between buyers and sellers; in other words, if you ne$£r
receive the goods you ordered, you will not get a refund from
the payment service.
Ihere is a wealth of excellent information on these topics avail
able on the Internet. Some good starting points are the Federal
Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov), FindLaw (www.findlaw.com
— see the "Public and Consumer Resources" section), Consumer
Reports online (www.consumerreports.org) and Internet Fraud
Watch (www.fraud.org).
Nicole Miami is an attorney at law for ASUO Legal Services.
Eric Layton Illustrator
Trademark stifles free speech
Fearing infringing the University's trade
marks and subsequent cease and desist re
quests, this piece is eschewing using die alpha
bet's fifteenth letter.
Well, well, it seems that, yet again, the
University has pushed an absurdist agen
da that squelches free speech while unsuc
cessfully establishing undue influence re
garding student statements. Last year,
University marketers charged student
clubs with printing the new, pre-affirmed
University insignia with every pamphlet,
business card and all printed material that
the clubs distribute.
Student interests lambasted the Uni
versity executives, claiming that they
were illegitimately infringing First
Amendment rights while burdening
clubs with large reprinting expenditures;
the clubs rallied, seeking the embattled
guidelines' reversal. Students tri
umphed, and using the University's
hues and ideas linked with its image was
safe again. Briefly, anyway.
During the last several weeks, Zach, a
Lundquist business graduate, started sell
ing self-made calendars depicting twelve
fair University girls cuddling in Jacuzzis,
leaning in a bathing area, washing sudsy
cars and the like.
The texts supplier at Alder Street and
13th Avenue that bears the University's
name briefly carried the calendar, and a
representative there said Zach had cleared
the item with the University's trademark
management department. Zach denied
telling the retailer that the department had
rubber-stamped the calendar.
Travis Willse
Rivalless wit
Recently, the University's trademark
management department sent Zach a let
ter, requesting that he cease selling the cal
endars. Apparently, Zach using the Uni
versity's hues, students and defining letter
laid unacceptably near infringing the Uni
versity's half-defined identity.
Zach pulled the calendars, but his
lawyer suggested that the trademark man
agement department lacked a sensible le
gal basis, and he was back vending them
just a few days later.
While he isn't in a legal bind yet, the calen
dars' revived sales might yet incite a lawsuit
That the University wants nary a link
with the calendar makes sense. A bureau
crat might find it challenging answering a
parent's angry inquiry regarding their
daughter's presence in a green-and-light
ning calendar featuring girls in garments
that are at best skimpy. But that needn't in
terfere with a private businessman selling
a clearly legal item.
In fact, any legal act against Zach and
his calendar business breaches the Univer
sity's design and just cause alike The Uni
versity graduating a business student, and
less than a term later needlessly curtailing
his legal business activities in misguided
self-interest, sets a bad precedent.
Likewise the University hasn't any trade
mark claim with its students, hues and al
phabetic letters, and Zach likely hasn't un
fairly used any blend that weds the emblems.
As it stands, the alphabet's fifteenth let
ter might terminate its Sesame Street back
ing, lest partisans at the trademark man
agement demand that PBS pull a green
Kermit and a canary Big Bird.
Contact the editorial editor
at traviswillse@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
Men go too far with Saferide request
I know I'm going to face some reactionary
backlash for this, and may even be purged
from College Republicans, but it needs to be
brought to people's attention that projects
like Project Saferide are necessary in a society
where one-fourth of women are sexually as
saulted in their lifetime (according to a com
monly quoted FBI statistic), and where
women are un
der threat of sex
ual violence
from men.
Much of the con
troversy seems to
stem from a lack of "equality," which I find
amusing given that we men sometimes com
plain about the lack of "sex equality" when
we don't get something we want or when
women get something that we don't
We men run nearly everything: the UN,
punk rock, the military, capitalism (and in
socialist countries, socialism), the church,
both ends of the political spectrum, most of
the House, Senate and administration, and
quite a bit of other stuff. Yet, when women
want or need something like a shuttle service
to keep them safe from our more predatory
brethren, we throw a fit. It's now illegal,
which is a different issuer but quite a few peo
ple I know have complained about its very
existence (not funding issues, legality, or any
thing like that — just the idea of a women
only shuttle). Saferide (to my knowledge) ex
isted for women who weren't comfortable
with men in certain situations for whatever
reason — a bread crumb where we own the
bakeries, but we were pissed off at that be
cause we didn't get to control that, too.
As for the $2.31 we men spend on Saferide
through our fees, so what? It's 69 cents less
than what I pay for a Heineken at Max's, or
about the cost to see Tear It Up play live.
Some may cite the state taking money
through force, but we don't have to come to
school here, so it's not exactly coercion.
Maybe we men should have to pay it
though, sort of like a "man tax" to make up
for all the rapes, disrespect beatings, cat rails,
harassment gropings, coerced abortions and
all-around bullshit our gender has inflicted
on women for the past few thousand years.
Saferide is now illegal, and "equality" pre
vails (another example of how we need to
do things ourselves, and not depend on the
welfare-state). I don't mean to sound like a
radical feminist or anything, but maybe we
should give up our male privilege and not
get so pissed, offended and defensive every
time women want something or do some
thing that doesn't include us.
Lucas Szabo is a junior in the
political science program.