Sex.com: One Domain, Two Men, Twelve Years and the Brutal Battle for the Jewel in the Internet’s Crown
Review
an interesting story which includes almost every kind of dirty-dealing you could want – Sunday TelegraphThe battle for the domain name sex.com had it all … a fast-footed account of the trial and its upshot – The Timesfascinating – Zoo magazine
With five million page views every day, sex.com was the most valuable piece of virtual real estate on the planet during the first years of the internet. But the fact that it didn’t physically exist didn’t mean…
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December 12th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Forget the lubricious or lascivious, there’s little if any of that in Kieren McCarthy’s business-thriller/page-turner. Its essential subject matter is on the face of it dry as a bone: trademarks, internet domain names or URLs, intellectual property rights, and the civil legal system that arbitrates on all of the above.
Yet McCarthy makes the topic alive, fraught, fascinating and above all important: to you and me as media users, to would-bet net entrepreneurs, to anyone to whom ideas – and their protection and promotion – is important.
If you were to derive just one lesson from McCarthy, it would be this:
Don’t bother staking your claim to ANY I.P. (intellectual property) unless you are prepared to defend it (metaphorically speaking) by blood and the sword.
Personally, I would have been quite unable to withstand the legal, financial and emotional pressure to which the founder of sex.com was subjected when his site was stolen from him and, finally, after years of legal battles, restored.
It is quite likely that, by winning the battle for himself, he fought and won what would have been many a future battle for the rest of us. URLs (including the very one you’re looking at now!) are that bit safer from thieves and pirates because of the victory described in this book.
But oh how close, in the dying days of the saga, victory looked like turning to the sourest possible defeat!
Rush to your credit card wallet and buy this book now. Buy two: you’re sure to know a net fiend who’ll find it instructive and enthralling.
December 12th, 2009 at 2:49 am
This is an exciting and gripping book. I found myself turning pages as fast as when reading other non-fiction thrillers like Marc Bowden’s Killing Pablo.
You don’t have to be into technology and domain names to enjoy this book. If you’re into crime books or law, you’ll find this story fascinating.
December 12th, 2009 at 4:55 am
This is a highly readable book about the legal battle between Gary Kremen and Stephen Cohen for ownership of the ’sex.com’ domain name.
While the focus is specifically on the battles fought over the sex.com domain name, a number of broader intellectual property and domain name management issues are also covered.
Establishing and enforcing ownership of intellectual property in a virtual world operating largely across (if not outside) territorial boundaries is fascinating. On one level, this is a book about a battle between two intelligent and driven men (and their lawyers) for a lucrative piece of virtual real estate. On another level, it is about ‘managing’ aspects of the the internet. Or is it?
Gary Kremen has since sold the domain name for some $US 12 million.
Recommended to those interested in real crime as well as those interested in intellectual property issues.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith