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The Battle for Sex.com
19th June 2003
Do you remember the days when a domain name could be worth a good deal of money? It wasn't so long ago.
Nowadays the values have collapsed, but there are still some worth fighting for, Sex.com being possibly the most valuable domain name of all, given that Internet porn is still a thriving business. Sex.com has also been the subject of a six year legal battle between Gary Kremen and Stephen Cohen, that has travelled all the way up to the supreme court.
Mr Kremen originally registered sex.com with Network Solutions, now known as Verisign. Allegedly, Mr Cohen sent a forged letter to Verisign, asking the address to be handed over to him. Verisign did so without running any checks or contacting Kremen. Cohen then proceeded to set up a thriving porn business with sex.com, estimated to be worth $500,000 per month in advertising. Kremen sued.
The latest round of the legal battle came to an end when the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Cohen, against a $65m award for damages. Sadly Kremen may have trouble recovering his costs, as Cohen is a fugitive from justice currently residing in Mexico. But in any event it isn't over as Kremen is also pursuing Verisign for the money.
Details at: http://www.it-analysis.com/article.php?articleid=10959
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