With five million page views every day, sex.com was the most valuable piece of virtual real estate on the planet during the first years of the internet. But the fact that it didn’t physically exist didn’t mean that it couldn’t be stolen. With an ingenious scam—the full details of which have never been revealed until now—lifelong con man Stephen Cohen was able to snatch the domain name and walk into a life of untold wealth and luxury. But Cohen underestimated the determination of Gary Kremen—sex.com’s original owner—to get his property back. The efforts took ten years and millions of dollars, but Kremen eventually saw Cohen finally pay for his crimes. This is the story of the extraordinary battle between two extraordinary men: a Stanford scholar with uncanny foresight, and an uneducated, genius con man with an unnatural gift for persuasion. The fight pushed each man to the edge, rewrote the laws, and shaped the history and development of the internet as we know it.
An acknowledged expert on the Internet's naming systems and global politics surrounding Internet governance, Kieren has written for a wide range of newspapers, magazines and online publications as well been a guest on countless radio shows, providing witty and accessible insights into this fast-moving and complex world.
Kieren is the author of Sex.com: One Domain, Two Men, Twelve Years and the Brutal Battle for the Jewel in the Internet's Crown (voted one of the 10 best-ever technology books), detailing the extraordinary battle for the world's most valuable online real estate. He is currently working on his second book, Uncle John, covering the life of "probably the best-loved man in San Francisco", John McLaren (1846-1943), who designed and built the world-famous Golden Gate Park.
