Good Deed

Rogers Cadenhead registered the domain name BenedictXVI.com - along with several others - to prevent a pornographer or online casino from acquiring this domain name the minute the new Pope was named, and then using it in ways that would embarrass both the new Pope and the Catholic church. Having correctly guessed the name of the new Pope, he could have profited by simply selling this domain to the highest bidder.

Instead, Rogers pledged to do nothing to profit from his ownership of this domain. Rather, he plans to transfer control of this domain to the Vatican as soon as he is able to contact them successfully.

And while Rogers waits to hear from the Vatican, as his way of reaching out to others, he's used the domain BenedictXVI.com to tell the world about Modest Needs, a unique non-profit organization reaching out to those persons whom conventional philanthropy has forgotten.

He set up the domain to automatically forward to http://www.modestneeds.org/benedictxvi/, while he waits to see if the Vatican wants the domain name.

The Washington Post correctly reported what he did, but without even interviewing him, the Jacksonville TV newscast First Coast News falsely reported Thursday that he was selling the domain.

No good deed goes unpunished

To see what he was trying to avoid, see www.benedict16.com

Hat tip to Tech Law Advisor