Passion for the domain Sex.com
The history of the Sex.com domain, like a detective thriller, is imbued with drama and mystery. This domain saga talks about a long struggle for the right to own property.
The story began in 1994, when engineer Gary Kremen registered the domain name Sex.com. At that time, the Networks International Organization acted as the direct registrar of domains, registering domains for everyone. Clever Kremen immediately realized that in the future he could earn good money on such a simple and popular name. And he was right.
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Gary Kremen is an American engineer and businessman who first registered not only the domain name sex.com, but also jobs.com, housing.com, autos.com and other currently popular domains.
Kremen was born in 1963 in the city of Chicago, USA. After graduating from school in 1981, he enrolled at Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor's degree in engineering. A master’s degree in Kremen was received at Stanford University in 1989. After that, he opened a software company, Los Altos Technology, and headed the company until 1992. In 1993, he founded Electric Classifieds, Inc., which became one of first involved in online advertising.
Since 1994, Kremen has launched a global online project called Match.com.
Gary Kremen
It was the year 1994, Kremen quietly went about his business, promoted the match.com dating site, ran the company, and most likely forgot about his domain Sex.com. Then one day Kremen received a strange notification, as if its number attached to the site had suddenly changed. He checked - in fact, on a special web resource of the registrar, another name stood opposite his site. Kremer decided that this was some kind of mistake and called the number indicated. At the other end of the wire, he was greeted by the voice of Stephen Cohen, an adventurous scammer who deftly snatched the domain. To a question from Kremen, why there are extraneous data in front of his Sex.com, Cohen calmly replied: "Because this is my domain."
At that moment, Kremen was hardly aware of the seriousness of the situation. He began to investigate, hoping to resolve the misunderstanding with the help of a registrar and sent a request to Network Solutions. The staff assured him that the necessary specialists would conduct an appropriate investigation, after which they would immediately contact him. Kremen did not wait long and turned directly to the leadership of the department. There he was also promised that they would deal with the difficulties encountered. But after a while, Kremen was called and informed that his domain would not be returned. While the guys understood and figured out what the problem was, Cohen managed to register Sex.com as a trademark and, according to the law, got all the property rights. It was then that Kremen and realized that in fact lost the domain, which promised colossal profit.
Stephen Cohen
Now a few words about the "thief". The previously convicted 46-year-old Stephen Michael Cohen was a born con man. Not even having a secondary education, he, however, possessed an extraordinary intelligence and enterprise. Cohen was involved in organizing swingers meetings over the virtual Internet. Obviously, such a project was not particularly profitable, its owner wanted much more. As a result, Cohen turned the scam and seized the promising domain with a fake letter on behalf of the real owner. With this letter, he convinced the registrar, Network Solutions, to transfer the domain Sex.com to him.
The unprecedented scale of the case immediately attracted the attention of the press. Everyone paid attention to the story of the stolen domain. Journalist Kieren McCarthy (Kieren McCarthy) later even wrote a book in which he described in detail the confrontation between Kremen and Cohen.
From the words of McCarthy:
Becoming the owner of Sex.com, Cohen managed to unleash it perfectly. At a certain point, the attendance of a web resource reached 25 million visitors per day. Naturally, advertising also brought a solid income. This was the best domain on the Internet! People came at least out of curiosity to find out what was there. The site earned millions purely on its intriguing domain name.
While Cohen was filming all the cream, Kremen put together a team of lawyers to begin the long process of returning Sex.com. He did a lot of work defending his right to the domain. In addition, Kremen was well aware that he was losing a lot of money every day.
The legal battle has been fought around the domain for five years. The subject of the dispute was too tasty for both to give up so easily.
As McCarthy recalls:
Gary Kremen after winning a lawsuit regarding the Sex.com domain (2003)
Justice triumphed - Kremen won a long and tedious legal process. The court issued a decision that ordered Cohen to pay $ 65 million to his opponent and, of course, return the Sex.com domain. Cohen tried to appeal to the High Court, but his request was rejected. But the fraudster did not want to part with the money. Therefore, he quickly transferred all his finances abroad, and he fled to Mexico, where he settled in Tijuana. He was hiding there until October 2005, until the Los Angeles Times reported that the fugitive was caught, arrested and returned to the United States.
Cohen served six months in prison, after which the judge stopped even trying to get him to pay. According to McCarthy, Cohen did not pay a small part of the $ 65 million. The only thing that managed to get to Kremen was real estate, bought for profit from the use of Sex.com.
In 2006, the Sex.com domain was sold for a record high price of $ 15 million and received the official status of the most expensive domain name in the world (by the way, after it Kremen also sold sex.net for $ 454,500). He changed owners a couple of times and now is a large porn site that works like a social internet service for adults, allowing users to add images and videos online (Pinterest) online. And in legal practice, the precedent with Sex.com led to the domain being recognized as the personal property of a person that can be stolen.
project Kremena dating site Match.com
As for Gary Kremen himself, the history of the domain brought him unheard of popularity. And although he did not actually receive $ 65 million from Cohen, the domain still brought considerable profit to its real owner.
In 2006, Kremen founded the company Clean Power Finance, which is included in the CPF Market - an online business platform for the distribution of financing in the field of solar energy.
Now Kremen lives in the San Francisco area and is engaged in Internet business, he provides financial services, launches startups. His dating site, Match.com, continues to operate successfully and introduces people around the world.
The story began in 1994, when engineer Gary Kremen registered the domain name Sex.com. At that time, the Networks International Organization acted as the direct registrar of domains, registering domains for everyone. Clever Kremen immediately realized that in the future he could earn good money on such a simple and popular name. And he was right.
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Curriculum Vitae
Gary Kremen is an American engineer and businessman who first registered not only the domain name sex.com, but also jobs.com, housing.com, autos.com and other currently popular domains.
Kremen was born in 1963 in the city of Chicago, USA. After graduating from school in 1981, he enrolled at Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor's degree in engineering. A master’s degree in Kremen was received at Stanford University in 1989. After that, he opened a software company, Los Altos Technology, and headed the company until 1992. In 1993, he founded Electric Classifieds, Inc., which became one of first involved in online advertising.
Since 1994, Kremen has launched a global online project called Match.com.
Gary Kremen
Unprecedented theft
It was the year 1994, Kremen quietly went about his business, promoted the match.com dating site, ran the company, and most likely forgot about his domain Sex.com. Then one day Kremen received a strange notification, as if its number attached to the site had suddenly changed. He checked - in fact, on a special web resource of the registrar, another name stood opposite his site. Kremer decided that this was some kind of mistake and called the number indicated. At the other end of the wire, he was greeted by the voice of Stephen Cohen, an adventurous scammer who deftly snatched the domain. To a question from Kremen, why there are extraneous data in front of his Sex.com, Cohen calmly replied: "Because this is my domain."
At that moment, Kremen was hardly aware of the seriousness of the situation. He began to investigate, hoping to resolve the misunderstanding with the help of a registrar and sent a request to Network Solutions. The staff assured him that the necessary specialists would conduct an appropriate investigation, after which they would immediately contact him. Kremen did not wait long and turned directly to the leadership of the department. There he was also promised that they would deal with the difficulties encountered. But after a while, Kremen was called and informed that his domain would not be returned. While the guys understood and figured out what the problem was, Cohen managed to register Sex.com as a trademark and, according to the law, got all the property rights. It was then that Kremen and realized that in fact lost the domain, which promised colossal profit.
Stephen Cohen
Now a few words about the "thief". The previously convicted 46-year-old Stephen Michael Cohen was a born con man. Not even having a secondary education, he, however, possessed an extraordinary intelligence and enterprise. Cohen was involved in organizing swingers meetings over the virtual Internet. Obviously, such a project was not particularly profitable, its owner wanted much more. As a result, Cohen turned the scam and seized the promising domain with a fake letter on behalf of the real owner. With this letter, he convinced the registrar, Network Solutions, to transfer the domain Sex.com to him.
The unprecedented scale of the case immediately attracted the attention of the press. Everyone paid attention to the story of the stolen domain. Journalist Kieren McCarthy (Kieren McCarthy) later even wrote a book in which he described in detail the confrontation between Kremen and Cohen.
From the words of McCarthy:
We were interested in the question of how exactly Cohen seized the domain. He was suspected of intimate communication with someone from the company Network Solutions. It is likely that he could have someone change the owner’s email address to his own, after which he used it to change other information.
Becoming the owner of Sex.com, Cohen managed to unleash it perfectly. At a certain point, the attendance of a web resource reached 25 million visitors per day. Naturally, advertising also brought a solid income. This was the best domain on the Internet! People came at least out of curiosity to find out what was there. The site earned millions purely on its intriguing domain name.
While Cohen was filming all the cream, Kremen put together a team of lawyers to begin the long process of returning Sex.com. He did a lot of work defending his right to the domain. In addition, Kremen was well aware that he was losing a lot of money every day.
The legal battle has been fought around the domain for five years. The subject of the dispute was too tasty for both to give up so easily.
As McCarthy recalls:
These were two equally intelligent and motivated men, while each was not going to give way to the other. Cohen stole a domain and made millions on it, so he was going to fight for it to the last drop of blood. Kremena, in addition to financial losses, was overwhelmed with a sense of injustice. The victory over Cohen became for him the meaning of life.
Long-awaited victory
Gary Kremen after winning a lawsuit regarding the Sex.com domain (2003)
Justice triumphed - Kremen won a long and tedious legal process. The court issued a decision that ordered Cohen to pay $ 65 million to his opponent and, of course, return the Sex.com domain. Cohen tried to appeal to the High Court, but his request was rejected. But the fraudster did not want to part with the money. Therefore, he quickly transferred all his finances abroad, and he fled to Mexico, where he settled in Tijuana. He was hiding there until October 2005, until the Los Angeles Times reported that the fugitive was caught, arrested and returned to the United States.
Cohen served six months in prison, after which the judge stopped even trying to get him to pay. According to McCarthy, Cohen did not pay a small part of the $ 65 million. The only thing that managed to get to Kremen was real estate, bought for profit from the use of Sex.com.
Afterword
In 2006, the Sex.com domain was sold for a record high price of $ 15 million and received the official status of the most expensive domain name in the world (by the way, after it Kremen also sold sex.net for $ 454,500). He changed owners a couple of times and now is a large porn site that works like a social internet service for adults, allowing users to add images and videos online (Pinterest) online. And in legal practice, the precedent with Sex.com led to the domain being recognized as the personal property of a person that can be stolen.
project Kremena dating site Match.com
As for Gary Kremen himself, the history of the domain brought him unheard of popularity. And although he did not actually receive $ 65 million from Cohen, the domain still brought considerable profit to its real owner.
In 2006, Kremen founded the company Clean Power Finance, which is included in the CPF Market - an online business platform for the distribution of financing in the field of solar energy.
Now Kremen lives in the San Francisco area and is engaged in Internet business, he provides financial services, launches startups. His dating site, Match.com, continues to operate successfully and introduces people around the world.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/272399/
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