Some of you might remember the little scuffle I got into with CLC. Joe College of Lawrence, Kansas is going through a similar battle, except they're currently in the middle of a federal jury trial. While this blog has nothing to do with my livelihood and I'm just as likely to post as I am to forget about it for a few months at a time, Joe College is a business and provides a living to owner Larry Sinks. To date, Sinks has sunk $300,000 into defending his business.

There are many nuances and complexities to copyright & trademark law. Key to this case is a legal doctrine known as 'fair use'. I won't get into a legal memo here, my brain will melt, but with apologies to the egg heads who live in the world of trademark and copyright law, it more or less gets down to this: are you confused? Would a normal person look at a shirt and think "that's an official shirt from the University of Kansas"?

Let's first look at KU. Like most universities, they're humorless, take themselves too seriously and have the creative acumen of a Soviet architect (here building four walls you live shut up). Universities do things like change "Border War" to "Border Misunderstanding". They take traditions and bathe them in the icy pools of political correctness. Remember, we now live in the self esteem generation, where overpraising and celebrating the mundane have become virtues. How do we feel good? We never feel bad.

Then there's Joe College. Irreverent, sometimes funny, sometimes not so funny, but certainly a far cry from what you would expect from the dull minds of a university marketing department or anything they would approve and license.

The atmosphere at campuses have become intellectually dishonest to the point where it is impossible to attribute something edgy and punchy like a Joe College shirt with something a modern university would put out. Universities are in the feel good business. Before long, you'll see professor tunnels after lectures to make the students feel good. Joe College and other purveyors of sassy attire are in the entertainment business. The difference is while there is overlap in the use of certain words like 'Kansas', Joe College uses its own creativity to say things with those words that people want to have on their shirt. The University of Kansas has "Kansas Basketball" on their shirts. Joe College has "Kansas, the Birthplace of North Carolina Basketball". Not in a thousand years would KU get behind something like that. Thus, no consumer confusion.

But the issue here isn't that of consumer confusion. It's really twofold. First, KU wants to cleanse all speech associated with it for political correctness. They want everyone to be nice. Second, KU wants all expressions of fan support to go through the KU athletic department toll booth.

The latter bothers me, but the former makes me irate. At Mizzou, I was a GDI. I understand this was a common term at KU, too, so we all know what this means. Don't tell me how to be a fan. Don't tell me how to live. Don't tell me that what I say, do and think has to have 'Collegiate Licensing' stamped on it. People have different tastes, different standards and some people like to be annoying and wear annoying clothing. If that were illegal, then all of you Crocs-wearing dads would be lining up for prison time.

Public universities belong to the people of that state, not the athletic departments. A university setting is the last place freedom of speech should be under assault.

Lighten up, KU. Muzzling your fans is so 1950.