When someone with authority reads your stuff, this is what happens if the
authority's rules are arbitrary/ capricious/undemocratic/paternalistic
/biased/ etc. etc. -- the authority punishes you for your speech.
Michael P
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HOUSTON - Two Rice University students returned from Easter break this
week to find their Web site featuring scientific experiments on
Twinkies yanked from the school's computers, a university spokeswoman
says.
Rice spokeswoman Patricia Bass said the Web site, which had been
posted on the private university's host computer to the World Wide
Web, was taken down after a "third party" not affiliated with the
school complained of possible copyright violations.
"I think it's clever and very well done," Bass said of the Web site,
which parodies the scientific method of conducting systematic
experiments in the pursuit of knowledge. In this case, junior Todd
Stadler and sophomore Chris Gouge built a Web site to post results of
seven "experiments" studying the effects of fire, gravity, microwaves
and blenders on the popular snack cake.
Officials with Interstate Bakeries, which makes the Hostess product,
said they were aware of the Web site and were studying whether it
violates their Twinkies trademark.
"I get a chuckle out of the Web site myself," Mark Dirkes, marketing
vice president with the Kansas City, Missouri-based company, told the
Houston Chronicle.
Interstate Bakeries attorney Sandy Sutton, who is meeting with
university officials today, said the trademark concerns were not
raised by the company. At issue is whether depiction of the Twinkies
on the Web page is a fair use of the company's trademarked product,
university and company officials said.
"The issue is, are our students violating somebody's trademark," said
Bass, who is with the legal affairs office of the university in
Houston.