MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-07-28 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] Owner of Stolen 'Sex.com' Can Sue VeriSign-Court
|
Hmm
I wonder about nylxs.org
On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 07:55:34PM +0100, Inker, Evan wrote:
>
> Owner of Stolen 'Sex.com' Can Sue VeriSign-Court
> Fri July 25, 2003 05:12 PM ET
>
> http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3162772
>
>
> By Elinor Mills Abreu
>
> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The owner of "sex.com," once considered one of the
> Internet's hottest addresses, can seek payment from the company that
> improperly transferred the domain to a "con man" who later fled to Mexico
> when ordered to pay $65 million, a court ruled on Friday.
>
> The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that
> "computer-geek-turned-entrepreneur" Gary Kremen can hold VeriSign Inc.'s
> VRSN.O
>
> Network Solutions unit liable for handing the sex.com Web address over to a
> "con man."
>
> The decision has widespread implications for companies that register
> domains, which until now have not been held responsible when Web sites are
> switched from their rightful owners, a lawyer for the plaintiff said.
>
> "This is a landmark Internet decision," said James Wagstaffe, Kremen's
> attorney. "It is the first time a court has applied traditional property
> protections to a domain name."
>
> In April 2001, Stephen Cohen -- who lawyers said turned the sex.com domain
> into a multimillion-dollar porn empire -- was ordered to pay $65 million in
> compensation for lost profits and $25 million in punitive damages to Kremen
> in the largest judgment ever in a domain name theft case.
> Kremen had registered the domain in 1994, but lost it the following year and
> did not recover it until 2000, long after the dot-com boom and bust.
>
> But Kremen has been able to get only a fraction of the money because after
> the trial Cohen sent his assets out of the country and fled to Tijuana,
> Mexico, Wagstaffe said.
> Kremen sued Network Solutions, the main registry of ".com" addresses which
> is now a part of VeriSign, charging that the company mishandled his domain
> name.
>
> He argued he had a property right in the domain and that Network Solutions
> should be held liable for mistakenly giving it away.
>
> The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed with him and reversed a
> federal district court order in favor of Network Solutions, sending the case
> back to the lower court.
>
> FORGED LETTER
>
> Having recently been released from jail where he was sent after a conviction
> for impersonating a bankruptcy lawyer, Cohen used a forged letter to trick
> Network Solutions into transferring the domain to him, according to the
> appeals court.
>
> The letter claimed that Kremen's business, Online Classifieds, did not have
> an Internet connection and included a forged signature.
>
> Despite the fact that Network Solutions made no effort to contact Kremen,
> the lower court exempted the company from liability. The court concluded
> that although domain names are a form of property, they are intangible and
> thus not subject to the law governing wrongful taking of another's property.
>
> The appeals court rejected that narrow interpretation, although it affirmed
> rulings in favor of Network Solutions on two other claims related to breach
> of contract.
>
> "There is nothing unfair about holding a company responsible for giving away
> someone else's property even if it was not at fault," the appeals opinion
> said.
>
> "Cohen is obviously the guilty party here, and the one who should in all
> fairness pay for his theft. But he's skipped the country, and his money is
> stashed in some offshore bank account," the written opinion said. "It would
> not be unfair to hold Network Solutions responsible and force it to try to
> recoup its losses by chasing down Cohen."
>
> The case took a bizarre turn in 2001 after the district judge declared Cohen
> a fugitive from justice, signed an arrest warrant and sent the U.S. Marshals
> after him. Kremen then put a "wanted" poster on his sex.com site with a mug
> shot of Cohen and offered a $50,000 reward.
>
> Cohen's lawyers asked the district court to vacate the arrest warrant,
> claiming that Cohen was under house arrest in Mexico and that his life would
> be threatened by gunfights between lawmen and bounty
> hunters. The court denied the motion.
>
> The lawyer who represented VeriSign declined to comment and a spokeswoman
> for VeriSign's Network Solutions unit said the company does not comment on
> ongoing litigation.
>
> Kremen, who lives in San Francisco and operates sex.com as a porn portal,
> did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
>
>
>
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____________________________
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Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
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