Long-running battle over sex website is testing new cyber-laws
“The dispute over what is arguably the most lucrative domain name in existence – sex.com – has rumbled on for in excess of 10 years” says The Times’ Jonathan Richards. The dispute involves Gary Kremen, who Richards notes “has been trying to get the name back since it was stolen from him 12 years ago.” But the dispute has “also made a significant contribution to the emerging field of internet law.” The courts awarded Kremen $65m in damages for earnings by Stephen Cohen who stole the domain name, and punitive damages. However Kremen has not seen a cent of the money. A number of cases have occurred, with a case in 2003 involving ARIN recognising domain names as property. Since then ARIN have won a case upholding the company’s guidelines that “IP resources are non-tranferable, may not be sold or assigned, and may only be transferred upon ARIN’s approval of a formal transfer request.”
Richards notes this “ruling is significant not only because it gives ARIN … continued control over the allocation of internet numbers, one of the most crucial pieces of the internet’s architecture. It also maintains a shift towards recognising internet resources as having property rights attached.”
Chris Reed, professor of electronic commerce law at Queen Mary University, is quoted as saying: “Internet addresses are going the same way as other internet resources – such as domain names – in that they are being treated more and more as a piece of personal property.
“What the court is saying is: ‘Yes, there is a property right associated with an internet address, but in order to ‘own’ it, you have to sign up to certain terms – as in the case of domain names, where the owner has a contractual relationship with a registry.”
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article1553728.ece