php5-imagick auto prepending document root

[iateadonut]

On this page:
http://www.clickaboutme.com/sigbox/sigbox.php

I'm using imagick to make a graphic, which works on my development mandriva server. On the debian server, this command:
$M08 = new Imagick($logoURL);
where the URL is:
$logoURL = http://shoreline.eng.ohio-state.edu/.../NASA_Logo.gif

an error is thrown because the server prepends the document root to the url:
unable to open image `/home/dan/public_html/clickaboutme.com/public/sigbox/http:/shoreline.eng.ohio-state.edu/research/exomars2009/exomars2009_files/NASA_Logo.gif'

the imagick on debian is php5-imagick, while on the test server, it's php-imagick

any ideas on how to fix this?