Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Article
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
What's Up With "The Quad" ? |
Current rating: 0 |
by Mike Lehman (No verified email address) |
30 May 2001
|
Here's something that bears watching. |
What the heck is "The Quad"?
I'm wondering myself. They seem to have an office in some relatively pricey real estate at the Illinois Terminal Building.
They make some vague statement about how Champaign is soon to have "two daily student newspapers."
They have a bunch of logos to choose from.
And they are pro-Chief...
I could speculate about several well-healed local rightwingers that might finance such a paper, but it would simply be speculation at this point. They seem to want to use as an excuse for why they might need to exist the rather flaky article that the Octopus ran regarding the Daily Illini back in Feburary (for which the link doesn't work.)
Does anyone know any more about this?
And why isn't the News-Gazette right-wing enough for these people? |
See also:
http://www.champaign.com/ |
The Quad is Dennis Toeppen |
by Paul R. paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0 31 May 2001
|
A series of whois searches (searches on domain name owners) turns up the owner of champaign.com as Dennis Toeppen, who is president of net66 and Suburban Express. Apparently Mr. Toeppen is, according to scholars in trademark law, "a poster child for cybersquatting."
Apparently, in the mid-90s, Mr. Toeppen was one of the very first "cybersquatters," folks who registered hunderds of domain names, usually of large corporations, and then tried to sell them back at inflated rates. He was made famous in the case Panavision v. Toeppen, in which he was sued by the Panavision company for trademark dilution, because he had registerd the domain panavision.com which directed people to a site with pictures of Pana, IL. He lost.
I followed the trail by doing a search on champaign.com which returned the following ownership info:
Domain Name: CHAMPAIGN.COM
Updated Date: 23-may-2001
Registrant:
The Quad
PO Box 2400
Champaign, IL 61825
US
217-344-5500
dns (at) inert.com
This wasn't too useful, so I did called up the domain for the dns (domain name server), intert.com, and found a text site selling registered domains (one for sale is champaign.com).
A whois search on inert.com turned up different information, but with the same address:
Teletravel, Inc. - For Sale
PO Box 2400
Champaign, IL 61825
US
217-359-9453
dns (at) inert.com
Still stumped, I decided to see if I could telnet to inert.com, which worked, resulting in a machine owned by net66, which a search of the Illinois Secretary of State Corporation Database shows is owned by Mr. Toeppen.
This Yahoo search (http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=%22Dennis+Toeppen%22&hc=0&hs=0) turned up everything eles I reported on his cybersquatter career and owning Suburban Express.
I don't know much else about the guy or his politics, but can say that it's 90% likely he's got something to do with "The Quad."
For more on the cybersquatting, see the case law summary at:
http://adlaw.ljx.com/in_the_courts/establish_trademark_rights.html
|
See also:
http://www.mediageek.org |
Interesting... |
by Mike Lehman (No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0 31 May 2001
|
It's interesting that the appropriation of the images and symbols of others is so strongly supported regarding both native peoples and modern intellectual property, by apparently the same person. I guess it supports the premise that "We stole it fair and square," though.
And the whole thing revolves around something that certain whites claim is supposed to represent "a symbol of dignity and honor"- there really is no honor among thieves, is there? |
....so maybe |
by Jason jpitzl (nospam) wildhunt.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0 31 May 2001
|
...this is more of an axe to grind sorta thing, considering his experience with the DI?
And just because he's got an office and an URL doesn't mean he's bankrolled. For all we know that space could also be the new home for Suburban Express and Net66 his other two operations.
|
See also:
http://www.wildhunt.org |
Obtusely???? |
by Mike me (nospam) myhouse.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0 08 Jun 2001
|
Well....Whatever "right-wingers" might be behind this paper, I doubt that they "obtusely" hinted at anything. When one is being obtuse (the irony is almost irresistible but I'll leave it alone) they are being stupid or dull witted, whereby they are failing to see something either by inability or by choice....not trying to say or hint at something. They may obliquely hinted. |
link to imc at www.champaign.com |
by don taylor don't drag me into it (unverified) |
Current rating: 0 07 Aug 2001
|
well, they can't be all bad - they have a link to imc |