Wednesday, November 24, 1999

By Dean Narciso
Dispatch Police Reporter

A federal judge has shut down a Web site selling sexually explicit material carrying Ohio State University logos.

U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus yesterday ordered Ground Hog Productions to close its Web site, Buckeyegirls.com, for 10 days. A Dec. 6 hearing will determine whether the site will be permanently closed.

OSU officials learned last week that OSU's trademark scarlet-and-gray block O and other images were used to embellish a site consisting of chat rooms, videos and pictures depicting nudity and sex acts, said Joseph R. Dreitler, an attorney who represents the university.

"There were some very hard-core things on this site,'' Dreitler said. He said the operators of the site had not contacted OSU officials for permission to use the icons.

The Web site included free and fee-based access and had been operating for at least two months, Dreitler said.

The Web site included examples of copyright infringement, Sargus wrote in his opinion. The court ruled the Buckeye logo was placed "in a negative context, thus reducing its value.''

Dreitler said OSU wants compensation for court costs plus triple the profits of the owners -- David J. Merchant, of Mansfield, Ohio, and Jon R. Fitzgerald, of Ashland, Ohio. Merchant and Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment last night.

Dreitler said, "There is a misguided notion that the Internet is the wild West and that you can do anything you want.

"People don't realize that all of the law applies to everything that's on the Internet.''