SAM'S A GONER AT SUTTER JUNIOR HIGH.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
After more than 20 years on the outside gym wall at Sutter Middle School in Winnetka, Yosemite Sam For the shortwave radio station, see . Yosemite Sam is an animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park. bit the dust last month as the campus mascot. Graffiti and a copyright infringement Noun 1. copyright infringement - a violation of the rights secured by a copyright infringement of copyright plagiarisation, plagiarization, piracy, plagiarism - the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own threat from Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . did what Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters. He has one of the more convoluted and disputed origins in the Warner Brothers cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs Bunny himself). never could. Shut up the tough-talkin', gun-totin', ``stick'em up, Rabbit!'' prospector. Sam didn't get it in the back, but it was close. He got painted over. When the kids left for winter break, he was still up there on the outside of the school gym, visible and familiar to anyone who regularly drives along Winnetka Avenue or Sherman Way. A few days later, though, he was gone. ``We've salvaged Sam many times from graffiti, but this time it was just too much,'' Principal Carolyn Baker said Monday. ``I hated to do it, but I had to issue the order to paint him out.'' She and everybody else at this school would love to put Sam back, but then she'd be running afoul of a·foul of prep. 1. In or into collision, entanglement, or conflict with. 2. Up against; in trouble with: ran afoul of the law. the consumer products division of Warner Bros. ``They sent me a nasty letter back in 1995 saying we couldn't use Sam anymore, to cease and desist Cease and desist (also called C & D) is a legal term used primarily in the United States which essentially means "to halt" or "to end" an action ("cease") and to refrain from doing it again in the future ("desist"). ,'' Baker said. Instead of a set of pistols, her school's Yosemite Sam was holding a pick and shovel, in honor of the school's name sake, goldminer John Sutter Johann Augustus Sutter (February 28 1803 – June 18 1880) was a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush by the discovery of gold by James W. . ``I wrote Warner Bros. back saying we'd like to keep Sam because he's been our longtime school mascot and was very popular with the kids who buy a lot of Yosemite Sam products, like T-shirts to wear. ``But all I got back was a legal letter saying thanks for the interest, but their licensing policy precluded them from allowing us to use Sam anymore,'' Baker said. ``I called them to basically beg to keep Sam, but never could speak to a human being about it, and no one ever called me back.'' The school complied with Warner Bros. - sort of. It changed Yosemite Sam Day to Howdy Day, and stopped putting the cartoon character's image on its school shirts and folders. But Sam still lived up there on the outside gym wall until last month, when Sam was so badly damaged by graffiti he had to be painted over. ``It was a shock, coming back to school and seeing Sam was gone,'' said student Shannon Kennedy, 14. ``He's been hit with graffiti before, but we've always gotten him back. ``The kids think it's kind of stupid and sad we can't get him back now because Warner Bros. doesn't want us to use him. He's our mascot.'' A lot of parents feel the same way, said Ellen Eckard, PTA PTA or parent-teacher association: see parent education. president and director of the school's parent center. ``Sam's been up there for 20 years. He's a landmark in this community. If anything, he's been a successful marketing tool for Warner Bros. The kids and teachers buy tons of Yosemite Sam stuff. ``It's not like we're making money off of them,'' Eckard said. True, said Gary Simon, a senior vice president of business and legal affairs for Warner Bros. But there are some things more important than money - like image and product control. When Sutter Middle School received permission from Warner Bros. to use Yosemite Sam as its mascot 20 years ago, Simon said, ``People in the company didn't really look at all the implications carefully of what they were doing.'' The problem is basically one of protecting the company's trademark and quality control, he said. With so many requests coming in every year to use Warner Bros. characters, there's no way the company has enough people to travel the country to ensure that its characters are being used properly. ``Since we don't want to discriminate on why one school can have Yosemite Sam and another can't, we just say no to all of them,'' Simon said. ``Yes, we realize there is goodwill in having our characters out there in schools, but we have to balance it with how to make sure they're being used properly,'' he said. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how to do that.'' You can't blame Warner Bros., Disney, or any of the other entertainment conglomerates for guarding their images and characters like Fort Knox Fort Knox [for Henry Knox], U.S. military reservation, 110,000 acres (44,515 hectares), Hardin and Meade counties, N Ky.; est. 1917 as a training camp in World War I. It became a permanent post in 1932. In the steel and concrete vaults of the U.S. , but I think they're being paranoid here. Sure, there are going to be cases of their cartoon characters being misused, but the vast majority are going to be like Sutter, where the kids and staff are proud of their mascot and want to keep him. For 20 years, this school has given Warner Bros. free, positive exposure to thousands of motorists. If the company was smart, it would send over a paint crew to put Sam back up on that gym wall. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Principal Carolyn Baker, left, and PTSA PTSA Parent Teacher Student Association PTSA P-Toluenesulfonic Acid PTSA Prevention Through Service Alliance PTSA Petroleum Transportation and Storage Association PTSA Pre-Task Safety Analysis President Ellen Eckard show the Yosemite Sam mascot, now painted over. Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer |
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