By Travis Morgan
ByuBAY.com is a student-founded Web site set to join the oodles of online textbook flea markets.
That is, if the site ever gets off the ground.
Both eBay and BYU have expressed concerns about the site''s name, wondering if it breaches copyright laws.
'EBay has contacted us and told me that I cannot use a domain name with ''bay'' in it,' said BYU student and site co-founder David Ogden.
He doubts eBay could trademark a common word like 'bay,' but Ogden said his company would try to appease eBay''s requests without changing the Web site address.
BYU officials have their own reservations.
'BYU is a registered mark and a registered name,' said Jason Badell with the school''s licensing department.
'Using the BYU name and logos is not allowed unless it is approved by the Licensing Department,' he said.
Badell said the department considers student requests to use 'BYU' in outside ventures on a case-by-case basis.
'We''re all for positive adversing for BYU, but it''s not right for them to get gain off the BYU name if they don''t offer the school any positive benefits,' he said.
Meanwhile, byuBAY.com creators hope to lure students away from the BYU Bookstore''s buyback lines with their online textbook auction, said site co-founder Benjamin Olson, 23, a senior majoring in economics from Palo Alto, Calif.
The Web site was born out of the founders'' distrust of the Bookstore''s textbook buyback practices.
'There is a feeling, especially among economics students, that they have a monopoly,' Olson said.
The BYU Bookstore purchases used textbooks at 60 percent of the new book price during the book buyback program at the end of each semester or term, said Brent Laker, BYU Bookstore assistant director.
Used books are then resold for 75 percent of the new book price, he said.
However, if the Bookstore reaches its buyback quota for a textbook, it can only pay the wholesale price for the used text, Laker said.
The average wholesale price is only 10 to 30 percent of the current new price, he said.
Ultimately, textbook swapping isn''t byuBAY''s only focus: 'That is just one of a million things that could be improved through increased communication,' Ogden said.
ByuBAY''s general auction site will cater to students who typically list cars, computers and other items on the Wilkinson Student Center bulletin board, Olson said.
'It really is something that''s useful,' Ogden said. 'We just want to tie people together.'