Crypto-related domain name auction to benefit FSF and FSFE

[David Shaw]

Hi everyone,

I have a few crypto-related domain names that I bought a few years ago for one project or another.  (Among other ideas, I had once thought to set up a 'who will sign my PGP key?' exchange, but then biglumber.com did it so well, there was little point in doing it all over again).  I've been sitting on the domains for a while, but they're not really doing anyone any good like that.  So, rather than just letting them expire and be snapped up by link farms, I thought I could do something more useful for the community - auction them off and donate the money to the FSF and FSFE.

The 5 domain names are:

  keyservers.net
  keyservers.org
  (I don't own keyservers.com - it's parked by someone with advertising links on it)

  keysigners.com
  keysigners.net
  keysigners.org

I figured a two-week auction period would do it, but if someone feels strongly that isn't enough time, let me know.  The basic idea is that people can send me their bids for each domain name, and I will post the current high bids (without identifying the bidder) on http://www.jabberwocky.com/domain-auction.html

After the auction is over, I will notify the high bidder for each domain that they are the winner.  The auction winner is responsible for sending the winning bid directly to the FSF or FSFE (winner's choice).  An easy way to do this is via Paypal to donate at fsf.org or paypal at fsfeurope.org, but other means are available if necessary.  Once the FSF or FSFE confirms to me the donation has arrived, the auction winner and I can do the usual domain name transfer process.

Any questions or comments?  I'd like to start the auction on Monday (May 24th).  Feel free to forward this note to anyone who might be interested in the domains.

David