it really has a market right now and if you get a cracked vanilla server you will have donations rolling in. there a lot of websites that are only running on donations and they are getting plenty enough to be able to run the servers just off of donations. example eminentcraft.enjin.com they are doing really well. just an idea but its completely your choice. btw here is a cracked version of 1.2.5 but you can only join cracked servers.
http://www.mediafire.com/?7iih0j7r7z5wrp2
install then it will take you to a website but just exit out of the website its just confirming the installation. then just run the minecraft shortcut and it will ask you for your nickname which is the name that will be displayed on the servers. it will then ask you for your minecraft login info ignore that and click login it will ask you to play offline or retry. click play offline and there you go enjoy guys!!