College Threatens Students Who Use College Initials In Private Email Addresses

from the too-much-free-time dept

Tue, May 12th 2009 7:54am — Mike Masnick

Slashdot alerted us to the bizarre story that Santa Rosa Junior College was supposedly sending out threatening emails to students and staff who used private email accounts that included the initials SRJC (so, for example, using nameSRJC@gmail.com or whatever). Oddly the original article pointed to has been taken down (though, the comments remain...). But, the same newspaper has published another article where the school stands by the policy and says it will continue to crack down on the "misuse" of its name... though it says it won't take anyone to court, despite the threat letter saying "to avoid any future legal action..."

The school officials still don't see why it's a big deal that they're threatening students. However, their reasoning makes very little sense. "The reason for it is so the college doesn't get misrepresented in some way or make it look like the college is endorsing a product or issue," according to Santa Rosa Junior College President Robert Agrella. But that makes no sense. If a student uses an actual address from the university, wouldn't that risk be much greater? In other words, does the college really think that it's a bigger risk for someone to say something that the college does not endorse from nameSRCJ@gmail.com or name@santarosa.edu? Because it seems fine with the latter, but not the former. The whole thing smacks of college administrators who don't understand technology and have way too much free time on their hands.

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Filed Under: email, santa rosa junior college, threats

28 Comments

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lavi d SRCJ (profile), 12 May 2009 @ 8:03am

Ha!
FISRCJT!
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Chronno S. Trigger, 12 May 2009 @ 8:13am

Oddly enough
SRJCollege@gmail.com is available. One would think that if they have such a problem with using their initials they would be all over that.
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Chronno S. Trigger, 12 May 2009 @ 8:15am

Re: Oddly enough
You know, I previewed that and it didn't have the link. That's not presently a valid E-Mail account so there's no point clicking on it.
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Ima Fish, 12 May 2009 @ 8:16am

How would Santa Rosa Junior College even know why I would have the letters SRJC in my email address? If it was trademark issue, it would not matter because the standard would be confusion in the market place. But no one would confuse a mere student for a business. So there's no trademark issue here.

So does Santa Rosa Junior College seriously believe it owns all use of the sequence of the letters S, R, J, and C, exclusive of trademark?!
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 8:45am

Streisand effect in 3.........2.........1...
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 8:47am

Re:
A quick google search shows that SRJC is used for a lot of things other than Santa Rosa Junior College:

http://www.findaccountingsoftware.com/software/developer/1968

http://srcjservices.com /

www.pemc.org/webadmin/newsletter/pipeApril08.pdf20080716140138.pdf

www.alexa.com/data/details/main/srcj.info

www.alexa.com/data/details/main/srcj.info
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 8:48am

Re: Re: Oddly enough
It's not a webpage link, its an email address.
Notice the mailto: when you hover the mouse over the address.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 8:50am

BTW, I did a quick search of the trademark DB on the PTMO website. No one seems to have registered SRJC as a trademark so use it at will.
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Lickity Split, 12 May 2009 @ 8:54am

Re: Oddly enough
not any more...
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lavi d (profile), 12 May 2009 @ 9:03am

More "Reasoning"
"The reason for it is so the college doesn't get misrepresented in some way or make it look like the college is endorsing a product or issue," according to Santa Rosa Junior College President Robert Agrella.

How about making Robert Agrella look, at the least, ignorant of how the internet and trademarks work, and at the worst, a total dumbass?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 9:24am

Re: Re:
ty for pointing that out #6, i was going to say SRJC is not equal to Santa Rosa Junior College.

even if Santa Rosa Junior College is equal to SRJC.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 9:30am

New email...
Just so everybody knows, my new email address is monster.srjc@gmail.com.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 9:43am

Re: New email...
Nice! May the wrath of Monster and Santa Rosa Junior College be on you and your children!

;o)
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 9:46am

careful what email address you register....
In light of the Lori Drew case you might be convicted of "hacking" if you registered:

ragrella@gmail.com, ragrellasrjc@gmail.com, rasrjc@gmail.com, .....

......
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Another Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 9:54am

Re: New email...
monster.srjc@gmail.com is much better than my offering of
srjcsucks@gmail.com
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Yakko Warner, 12 May 2009 @ 9:55am

Re: New email...
ROFL

Lock the comments, we have a winner!
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 10:27am

Re: Re: New email...
here's another one: agrella.is.an.ass.srjc@gmail.com
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Sean Robert James Chambers, 12 May 2009 @ 10:57am

name change
You mean I cannot use my initials in my email address anymore?
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Robbie A, 12 May 2009 @ 11:03am

just registered:
mailto:RAgrellaSRJC@gmail.com i know you just said to lock it, but i really want to do some destruction with this one.
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paf56, 12 May 2009 @ 11:03am

Google ANY Acronym
Take any four letters strung together to form an acronym and Google it.

SRCJ -- An acronym, pronounced SURK-jah, which stands for "socially retarded computer junky".

Accounting Software :: SRCJ Services

Scientific Commons: SRCJ Santos

McAfee SiteAdvisor tests srcj.or.jp for adware, spam, scams, and e-mail practices.

welcome sign (SRCJ-3808 ) Manufacturer / Manufacturers directory ...

It does seem college administrators who don't understand technology, perhaps they need to go back to school?
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john, 12 May 2009 @ 11:08am

If letter pertains to private addresses (aren't they all???) of "students & staff" of the college, then I would presume they want to keep the 'private' part defined; ie, if the college gives you you an email address from their server(s),I would assume sjrc to be part of that addy. All other addy's given out by yahoo, msn, gmail, etc should not try to associate the college in it's name just because you attend or work there. Of course if you do not have an assocaition to the college then having sjrc in your address should not matter.
Privacy is not just an individual's right but an entity's as well. Individual's & entity's both need to pay more attention to their web presence and therefore need to keep said presence in check.
all u comedians can blow me
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billiards (profile), 12 May 2009 @ 11:11am

@14, to contact other individuals by impersonating agrella with the intent to slander his character would break much older and more serious laws than cyber bullying. jurors and nancy grace would care about it way less, but it would be more serious.
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Matt, 12 May 2009 @ 12:39pm

Evil gits. It's Discrimination.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 May 2009 @ 11:38pm

Link to news story is now: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090508/ARTICLES/905079854
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Robert Agrella, 14 May 2009 @ 8:29am

SJRC
It doesn't matter how stupid I am. I'm smart enough to become SJRC President and get overpaid for occupying my chair and exerting my authority. Now I answer to nobody. That's all that matters. RA.
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Brandon Stewart, FIRE, 21 Jul 2009 @ 8:32am

FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has issued the following press release about this issue:

http://www.thefire.org/article/10878.html

Free Speech Chilled at Santa Rosa Junior College: Administration Threatens Those Who Use Its Initials in Private E-mail Addresses and Domain Names

SANTA ROSA, Calif., July 20, 2009—Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) has failed to lift an unconstitutional ban on "unofficial" use of the initials "SRJC" in private e-mail addresses and website domain names, chilling the expression of students and faculty. After a faculty member came to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help, FIRE asked SRJC to lift its overbroad ban and to clarify the First Amendment rights of SRJC community members. SRJC, however, has told FIRE it intends to continue with its unconstitutional efforts to ban unofficial use of the college's name ...

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