A Missouri college's decision to sub-let space on its .edu domain is drawing fire:

an online college in Missouri has started renting out blog space on its .edu domain to just about anyone willing to pay $50 a month. And the practice has quickly raised objections from college officials worried that such rentals undermine the .edu designation.

The college, the Pickering Institute, calls its service the "first public EDU blog community," and it touts the marketing value of having an Internet address that appears to be part of a college. "Our blogs allow you to reach an education-minded audience that is difficult to reach with mass-market blogs such as Blogger or Blogspot," says an announcement on the institute's Web site. So far, the blogs with the new .edu addresses include such noneducational offerings as "Handbags in Our Life," "Jewelry in Our Life," and "Get the Scoop." The institute is working with an Internet company called LinkAdage to offer the service.

Educase, the folks who run the .edu domain, say that this doesn't actually violate any rules, but they clearly don't like it and say they are investigating after receiving a complaint.