2-3-04 update: If you'd like a forwarding address at lee.org, write to
me. For $10 per year, I can rent you a receive-only "lee.org" email address. For
$50/year, you can have a full webmail/POP mail account with a lee.org email
address and 5 megabytes of POP mail space. I'm also thinking of offering web
space... buzz me if you're interested. I might even change the homepage so it
shows off all lee.org sharers.
12-12-02 update: I won't sell you the domain, but I will rent out email
boxes on lee.org. I'll rent out a receive-only POP/forwarding mailbox to you at
a very reasonable rate. I plan on keeping lee.org forever so this could be the
best way for you to get a very easy to remember email address. Email me at Lee
at Lee dot oh are gee!
I get a lot of requests by people asking if I'd be willing to part with this
domain name. I've grown quite attached to it. I got this domain before Internic
(now "Network Solutions") was even charging for domain names. I've got
to say that when I got this domain, I realized that I might want to become a
"domain squatter" and gobble up a few thousand domains on the off
chance that someone would want to buy them from me in the future. Now (11/1999)
I look back at the varied history of domain squatters and think that I did the
right thing in not doing that.... I think.
There's a lot of issues behind domain squatting.
- It feels immoral because you are trying to create a scarcity where no
scarcity existed before. Just like DeBeers has done with diamonds (did you
know that diamonds are only slightly more "precicious" than saffire
except that DeBeers has total control over the world's supply)
- It feels immoral because you're then going to charge someone for something
they wouldn't have had to pay for in the first place.
- The legal battles of domains vs trademarks is a sticky, icky one. I would
find my conscience on the trademark owners side.
But then again...
- There were buckets of money to be made.
- I remember hearing about some "big" domains selling for 100-500
thousand dollars. And it was worth it for the companies to spend that much.
- It's just business. (I'm not sure if that is a scary phrase in this context
or not
I know that domain space is a very finite resource. There can be only one "lee.org"
on the planet. I used to own several domains (6 at one point) but that number
has dwindled. TJIC and I had "nitrousburningfunnycar.com"
for a long while. That was a gas!