Greetings. When I first heard about this my initial reaction was that it must be a joke. Sadly, it is not. It appears we not only have to worry about spammers, scammers, and other illicit fraudsters on the Net, but now the vested, 800-pound gorilla of domain name registrations, Network Solutions (recently spun-off from our friends at VeriSign) has a new plan to try fleece the masses -- a "100 Year" domain registration service! I kid you not -- they're sending out the e-mails promoting this gem as I type these words.

Yes, boys and girls, just send Network Solutions your non-refundable renewal fee in the amount of $999, and they'll renew your domain every year for an Entire Century. Never mind that domain names and the Internet are unlikely to even exist as we know them now long before a hundred years have elapsed. Forget about the fact that Network Solutions itself, as well as everyone reading this message, are likely to have vanished from the scene well before 2104. For that matter, we'll be damn lucky if civilization still exists by that time.

It appears that we now have a new textbook definition of greed, along with treating the entire Internet community like a pack of imbeciles. But then, anyone who falls for Network Solutions' "No worries for 100 years" service will themselves have given new meaning to the concept of a sucker.

http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/name-it/popup-100-yr-term.jhtml

--Lauren--