I ran across this story about Rogers Cadenhead, the guy who nabbed the benedictXVI.com domain name shortly before the new pope was named.

The first thing I noticed about the story was that, while it was news to me, it was dated April 20, 2005. I seem to be a little behind.

Reading his blog entries for the past week is very entertaining and a little enlightening. It’s pretty unbelievable how the press jump on things like this and how persistant they can be to get the story.

The cool thing about it is that after everyone assumed this guy was up to no good by registering all these domain names, he winds up only wanting to keep the domain names from porn sites and now is trying to contact the vatican to donate it – for a small price. He’s making some very simple demands for the turn over of the name. Demand number three is the one I found most amusing:

Complete absolution, no questions asked, for the third week of March 1987.

Its refreshing to see someone with a sense of humor finally get their 15 minutes of fame — and I don’t think that complete absolution is that much to ask …

Until the Vatican responds, he is using the domain name to publicize Modest Needs, an organization he describes as a “charitable e-bay”.