Dear Daniel,
My name is Jim Stovall, and I am a journalism professor at the University of Alabama. Ed Mullins forwarded your email to me, and since I have been out of town for a few days, I am just now getting to it.
I must say at the outset that I admire your work, and I know that many people enjoy your talents. I also know your brother David, and I think very highly of him.
I was involved to some extent in the Rick Rush/Tiger Wood case, but my involvement concerned some survey results that the Tiger Wood people wanted to present into evidence. This was not the heart of the case, but I did learn what that case was about, and I was very happy about the judge's ruling. That ruling, it seems to me, negates the stance that the University is attempting to take on your work.
I believe that you should have as much freedom to do what you do as any photojournalist. That is to say, a photojournalist will attend a football game, shoot pictures and run them in a newspaper—which is then sold to the public. The University does not make a claim against the newspaper because it has run pictures of the University's football team. You paint pictures, have them printed and then sell them to the public. The University does not make a claim against the newspaper because it has run pictures of the University's football team. You paint pictures, have them printed and then sell them to the public. What makes you different from the newspaper? Nothing that I can discern.
To my mind, the University is attempting to exercise a power that it does not have, based on a claim that cannot be upheld. If such a claim were upheld by the courts, it would cause serious damage to the free expression that the First Amendment is supposed to protect.
Consequently, I fully support you in your petition. I would encourage you in whatever course of action you choose to take. As a practical matter, I believe that the University knows that it cannot sustain the claim it is making and that they are seeking merely to intimidate you by raising the specter of legal action. This is an unwise course of action on the part of the University, and it is certainly unfair to someone like you who has worked to the University's benefit for so many years. I am truly sorry that you find yourself in this position.
I wish you the very best, and if I can do anything to help you out, please let me know.
Jim Stovall
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Jim Stovall
Department of Journalism
Box 870172
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0712
