Pubdate: Wed, 22 Apr 2009
Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA)
Copyright: 2009 Athens Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.onlineathens.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535
Author: Lee Shearer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)
Cited: GA NORML at UGA  www.uga.edu/norml

PRO-POT GROUP GETS TWO-YEAR PROBATION

Will Appeal UGA Decision

A University of Georgia student group that advocates the legalization 
of marijuana must serve two years' probation for misuse of 
copyrighted UGA images, a student judiciary panel decided Tuesday.

The UGA chapter of NORML sold T-shirts depicted a glassy-eyed bulldog 
holding a joint of pot, reading a book on human rights while sitting 
in front of a structure that resembled the famous - and copyrighted - UGA Arch.

The group also posted the image on its Web site, and UGA officials 
said NORML didn't take down the offending images quickly enough after 
UGA ordered the group to stop.

The chapter president, Wojciech Kaczkowski, said NORML will appeal 
the decision, and said the group had paid a price for contesting the 
charges that it violated UGA student conduct codes.

Two years of probation was twice as long as what UGA judicial 
programs said the group's punishment would be if officers admitted to 
the violations, Kaczkowski said.

"I don't want this to end like this. I don't believe we have done 
anything wrong," he said.

The appeal likely will fall on deaf ears, he said. But Kaczkowski and 
other NORML officers will ask ACLU lawyers and officials with the 
national NORML organization about the possibility of pursuing their 
appeal in court, he said.

"I just hope the university will realize that they are getting 
themselves into an issue of freedom of speech," Kaczkowski said. 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom