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Landmark domain-name dispute ends

"Sex.com provided the best test case imaginable."

Charles Carreon, attorney for Sex.com's founder

The US Supreme Court Thursday ended one of the longest and steamiest battles in the history of the Internet by finally settling a six-year-old dispute over ownership of the domain name Sex.com.

The decision by the court to deny a final appeal for control of the name is expected to set a precedent in the still young Internet industry for the proprietorship of website addresses, according to the victors.

The bizarre long-running battle over the name was sparked in 1995 when an entrepreneur managed to hijack the name, which was at the time left dormant by its registered owner, and launched an online pornography site.

But the highest US court rejected a bid by Stephen Cohen, who has been convicted of illegally usurping the domain name, to reverse earlier court decisions and return ownership of the lucrative web address to him.

"The Supreme Court's denial of Mr. Cohen's writ petition is significant because it puts the final nail in the coffin," said Pamela Urueta, an attorney for Gary Kremen, the founder of Sex.Com. "There is nowhere else for him to try to appeal, the judgment is final."

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit approved a US$65 million damage award against Cohen last September that opened the door to Kremen regaining control of the domain name.

Cohen allegedly usurped the domain name by sending a forged letter to a private firm called VeriSign, then known as Network Solutions Inc, which registers domain names, and transferring Sex.com into his own name, according to Sex.com and widespread industry media reports.

In return for the forged letter and US$1,000, the company transferred ownership of the site name to Cohen, prompting Kremen to launch the long legal battle to win back the name he registered in 1994.

But, according to Internet industry media reports, Cohen claimed that he owned Sex.com before Kremen first registered it and that he should therefore retain ownership of it.

Robin Gross, the executive Director of IP Justice, a civil liberties organization that focuses on intellectual property rights, welcomed the decision as a landmark for the industry.

It was "a precedent-setting case that requires domain name registrars to be held accountable for their mismanagement of crucial public resources such as the Internet," he said in a statement issued by Sex.com.

"Sex.com provided the best test case imaginable, and Mr Cohen turned it into a test of endurance," said Kremen attorney Charles Carreon.

Sex.Com is still waiting for a final verdict in a separate lawsuit against VeriSign which it accuses using inadequate safeguards to protect Kremen's property by transferring it to Cohen.

Cohen and his lawyers could not be reached for comment.
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