IJMC - Little Veronica Gets To Keep Her Web Site

I'd like to think we made a difference...cept that this update is well, a 
week old itself...so I had half the story...not my fault the website 
wasn't update. I guess I could have searched for it, but well, I've been 
beating my head against enough walls for a few months. Speaking of which, 
I do believe the ADSL is fixed, mostly. Keep your fingers crossed, I'll 
do a blurb on it in a day or two, when I'm fairly positive.         -dave





Subject: Update on Yesterday's Posting...

Wednesday January 20 9:01 AM ET


Little Veronica Gets To Keep Her Web Site

By Michael Miller

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Yes, Veronica, there is a fairy godmother.

A comic book publisher said on Tuesday it was dropping its efforts to shut
down the Web site of 22-month-old Veronica Sams over alleged trademark
infringement. 

The little girl's site, http://www.veronica.org, incurred the wrath of
Archie Comic Book Publications because the company claims it has a
copyright on the name Veronica, a character in its

``Archie'' comic strip who has her own Web site at
http://www.veronica.com, a lead-in to the Archie

Web site. Veronica Sams' Web site was established by her father, David
Sams of Los Angeles, to celebrate her birth in 1997. 

It features two photographs of Veronica, one of her playing in a bathtub
and the other of her sitting in a high chair with food smeared all over
her face. 

Now it is Archie who has egg on his face. 

The company said it had asked Network Solutions, with which Sams had
registered the veronica.org domain name, to put it on hold to protect
young Web surfers ``from the possibility that the veronica.org domain name
might be used for a Web site containing inappropriate, unsavory or
explicit material.''

But after being assured by Sams that veronica.org was for his daughter and
the most explicit thing shown would be the bathtub snapshot, the company,
based in Mamaroneck, N.Y., has dropped its threat to take Veronica to
court. 

``We did not take this action to challenge a child,'' Michael Silberkleit,
chairman and co-publisher of Archie Comic Publications, said in a
statement. 

``We did it to protect the millions of children who read our comic
magazines and look for our Web site. Now that Mr. Sams has publicly stated
that the veronica.org Web site will be devoted to his daughter, we have
withdrawn our request.''

Little Veronica herself professed to be surprised by all the fuss. ``I
don't understand. ... How can a company own my name? It's a common first
name. Veronica, in Archie comics, is a brunette. I'm a blonde. How could
the world confuse me with her? She's much older than I am. I'm still a
baby!... I'm confused and very hurt,'' she -- or, rather, her father --
wrote on the Web page. 

Sams could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but in a letter to
Archie Comic attorneys that he posted on his daughter's page, he pointed
out that the firm would have to take little Veronica to court, as the Web
site was registered in her name. 

It is not the first time that children's Web sites have incurred the wrath
of big companies. Last year a Pennsylvania boy nicknamed Pokey set up a
Web site at http://www.pokey.org featuring himself, his puppy and his
favorite video games. 

The Prema Toy company of San Rafael, California, sought control of the
site, saying they owned the trademark for Pokey, a line of toy. The
dispute was resolved when Pokey creator Art Clokey stepped in and said the
boy was welcome to his site. --