Stephen M. Cohen tricked Network Solutions, the first private domain name registrar, to transfer the ownership of sex.com to him from Gary Kremen, the legal owner. Gary filed a lawsuit which Cohen eventually lost. Ordered to pay $65 million, Cohen escaped to Mexico but was finally arrested in October of 2005 in Tijuana and packed off to the US.
Another Fact: The domain name was registered by Gary Kremen in 1995 with Network Solutions. Gary is also the founder of Match.com.
The details: Stephen M. Cohen unscrupulously took control of sex.com by continually contacting Network Solutions over phone, email, forged letters and, finally, a fake fax. After illegally gaining control of sex.com, Cohen created a advertising heavy web site which, at one time, was getting 25 million hits a day and generating $50K to $500K per month.
And the book: The legal battle for the ownership of the domain name sex.com was followed by a journalist, Kieren McCarthy, who wrote a book about it in 2007 – “Sex.com”.
