WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IF YOU LET YOUR URL LAPSE

LA CAR knows all about lapsed Internet domain names. When LA CAR went from lacar.org to lacar.com, it owned both domain names for quite some time. At some point, we stopped renewing lacar.org--and when that happened, a porn company took it over. To this day, we don't know what attracted .org to a porn company. Perhaps it was the similarity between org and orgy. In any event, we attributed a bump in LA CAR's traffic to viewers straying from .org over to .com. It appears that the Bluff City Police Department in Tennessee found itself in a similarly interesting situation after letting its domain name lapse. The Associated Press reports that the site was snatched up by a new owner—a man who uses it to gripe about traffic cameras that issue speeding tickets. Computer network designer Brian McCrary told the Bristol Herald Courier that he discovered the Bluff City Police Department site was up for grabs, so he paid domain provider Go Daddy to go for the rights to bluffcitypd.com. McCrary took over the site on May 22nd,after he received a $90 speeding citation earlier this year, according to the Bristol Herald Courier. The smiling cartoon police badge clutching green currency is from the site, which also posts comments from others who've been similarly cited. Police Chief David Nelson told the Bristol Herald Courier that the officer who managed the site had been on medical leave. The expiration of the domain name was a slip-up on the part of the department. And what about lacar.org? It subsequently found a home with the Los Angeles Committee Against Racism. Today, it's up for grabs. - Roy Nakano