Judge Returns Sex.Com to Entrepreneur

S A N   J O S E, Calif., Nov. 29 -- After a two-year legal battle, a San Francisco entrepreneur has won back ownership rights to one of the most lucrative destinations in cyberspace: www.sex.com.

A federal judge in San Jose ruled Monday that Gary Kremen is thereal owner of the site and that the current operator, ex-convictStephen Cohen, most likely stole the rights to the domain name fiveyears ago.

Kremen had registered the site with Network Solutions, thekeeper of Internet domains, but hadn’t really developed it. Kremenclaimed Cohen forged a document indicating the name had been sold,gave it to Network Solutions, and turned sex.com into amultimillion-dollar porn portal.

Cohen claimed he thought he had made a legitimate deal to buythe domain name for $1,000 and had rights to the name anywaythrough an online bulletin board he once ran called “The FrenchConnection.”

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U.S. District Judge James Ware ordered Network Solutions totransfer sex.com to Kremen’s control. Kremen, 37, said he wasthinking about what to do with the site.

Worried that Cohen has been hiding his sex.com profits overseas,the judge ordered him to put $25 million into a court account untilpossible damages are decided.

Cohen, who served prison time in the 1990s for a bankruptcyfraud conviction, lives in Tijuana, Mexico, and was not in courtfor the ruling. He did not immediately return a call for commentTuesday.