[lfjokes] A Public Letter to Jeff Bezos

[Adam Shand]

From: Kevin Zollinger <zollinger at bigfoot.com>

Network Solutions, Inc
505 Huntmar Park Drive
Herndon, VA 20170

April 1, 2000

Mr. Jeff Bezos
President and Chief Executive Officer
Amazon.com, inc.
P.O. Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108-1226


Subject:  Application for Renewel of amazon.com domain name

Dear Mr. Bezos:

We recently received your application for renewal of the "amazon.com"
domain name for your company, Amazon.com, Inc.  Unfortunately, we must
reject your application, and assign you an alternate domain name instead;
for the reasons outlined below.

As you are no doubt aware, the .com top-level domain is intended for use
by for-profit corporations.  Many such corporations are registered with
Network Solutions, and this policy is unchanged.

However, it has come to our attention, as evidenced by recent SEC filings
on behalf of Amazon.com, inc., that your company has yet to turn a profit.  
As such, Amazon.com, inc. no longer qualifies for a domain name in the
".com"  hierarchy.  However, based on your financial performance, you do
qualify for membership in the ".org" domain; which is intended for
non-profit organizations.  Unless there are any objections from you or
your representative, Network Solutions will assign Amazon.com, inc. the
new domain name "amazon.com.org".  (We would have assigned the shorter
"amazon.org" domain, but that domain is currently assigned to a website
for the San Fransisco lesbian community.)

To be frank; we were gravely concerned about the amount of money that
amazon.com, inc. has been losing.  We were seriously considering assigning
a name in the ".gov" domain based on the current rate that your
corporation is losing money.  However, as Amazon.com, inc. is a
publicly-traded corporation, and policy reserves the .gov domain for
organizations that are in fact governmental agencies, it was determined
felt that this would not be appropriate.

This change in your domain name registration only affects your Internet
domain name as assigned by Network Solutions; and no way impairs your
right to continue to do business under the trademark of "Amazon.com".  If
and when Amazon.com, inc. becomes a profitable enterprise; we will be
happy to reconsider granting you once again the domain name "amazon.com",
assuming it is still available.

This change shall take effect within the next thirty (30) days, at which
point the "amazon.com" name will be decomissioned.  You have until then to
notify customers and business partners.  Effective immediately, and for
the length of the thirty-day transition period;  both names wlll be
registered to Amazon.com, inc.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our
customer service department.

Sincerely,



Jim Rutt
Chief Executive Officer
Network Solutions, Inc.