What was the response of the establishment? The Mayor of Lancaster wrote a letter condemning our website. The authority also voted to take legal action against publisher Ron Harper, Jr.
January 31, 2005
Just how competent is the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority? Before you trust them with spending $129,000,000 of your money and millions of dollars in annual upkeep, consider the following story. (It goes without saying that you won't read this story in Lancaster Newspapers.)
In July of 2002, 5thEstate.com did a parody of the Convention Center authority's website. Using the same technique we've used time and time again, we bought a domain name that was eerily similar to their domain.
What was the response of the establishment? The Mayor of Lancaster wrote a letter condemning our website. The authority also voted to take legal action against publisher Ron Harper, Jr.
The authority also bought the following domain names at the same time in order to prevent someone else from the doing the same thing:
LCCCA.Org
LCCCA.Com
LancasterConventionCenter.net
LancasterConventionCenter.Info
LancasterConventionCenter.Us
LancasterCountyConventionCenter.Org
LancasterCountyConventionCenter.Net
LancasterCountyConventionCenter.Us
LancasterCountyConventionCenter.Info
All of the above domain names will take you to the authority's real website found at: LancasterConventionCenter.com
The authority has been paying $8.95 for every domain name above for the last three years - all to protect someone from using a domain name to parody them!
And what about 5thEstate.com's parody website? As part of a Sunshine Act lawsuit settlement, we gave the domain LancasterCountyConventionCenter.com to the authority. That's right, we turned the domain ownership over to the authority! It looks like they should have left us safeguard it.
Keep in mind that the authority was so concerned and upset about 5thEstate.com's parody that they bought up a bunch of similar sounding domain names. Keep in mind that this authority is about to start a project that will mortgage the future of our children and our children's futures by keeping a project going that all logic says will fail. This mistake and the resulting tax increases will hamper Lancaster County and Lancaster City for years to come. These people better know what they are doing - right?!
The convention center authority lost their domain name because they didn't pay the $8.95 a year! That's right, someone in Korea now owns their namesake, LancasterCountyConventionCenter.com and has it up for sale!!
Ted Darcus, in a recent Sunday News Editorial said this:
"Our mission is simple: to build, market and sell a unique, inviting convention venue. If we do it right, and I can assure you we will, for many years people will look back on this as a major step forward for Lancaster."
If the convention center can't even keep a domain name from expiring, how can they attend to the myriad of details to make a nearly impossible convention center project successful?
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