University of Virginia Library

Term Paper Manufacturers File Suit
Against Comic Strip Publishers

By MARGARET ALFORD

Termpaper Library, Inc. of
Washington has filed a
multimillion dollar suit against
The Washington Post,
Publishers Hall Syndicate and
Allen Saunders and William
Overgard, authors of the
"Steve Roper" comic strip
which appears in hundreds of
American newspapers.

Filed in U.S. District Court,
the suit claims the Roper strip
was designed to create a public
impression that not only is the
business of furnishing
term papers a "low and
unlawful enterprise" but that
[OMITTED] the parties so engaged are
"criminal types."

Termpaper Library, Inc.
writes and distributes
"educational material" to
college students and
corporations on a national
basis.

The suit, asking for $6
million in total damages, also
claims the plaintiff has been
brought into public disgrace
and that the purpose of the
strip was to promote legislation
to cover the plaintiff's
business.

Richard L. Kramer, chairman
of the board of Termpaper
Library, Inc. said the Steve
Roper strip puts his company
in an unfavorable light and
characterizes it as associating
with murderers and thieves.

The authors have run a story
in the strip since Sept. 21
depicting a term paper
company which murders a
professor trying to promote
legislation that would outlaw
commercial term paper writing.

The strip deliberately
characterizes the company's
actions as "run by
hoodlums...murderers and their
ilk," the suit charges.