Customer Reviews

Sex.com: One Domain, Two Men, Twelve Years and the Brutal Battle for the Jewel in the Internet's Crown (Volume 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Forget the lubricious or lascivious, there's little if any of that in Kieren McCarthy's business-thriller/page-turner. Its essential subject matter is on the face of it dry as a bone: trademarks, internet domain names or URLs, intellectual property rights, and the civil legal system that arbitrates on all of the above.

Yet McCarthy makes the topic alive, fraught, fascinating and above all important: to you and me as media users, to would-bet net entrepreneurs, to anyone to whom ideas - and their protection and promotion - is important.

If you were to derive just one lesson from McCarthy, it would be this:

Don't bother staking your claim to ANY I.P. (intellectual property) unless you are prepared to defend it (metaphorically speaking) by blood and the sword.

Personally, I would have been quite unable to withstand the legal, financial and emotional pressure to which the founder of sex.com was subjected when his site was stolen from him and, finally, after years of legal battles, restored.

It is quite likely that, by winning the battle for himself, he fought and won what would have been many a future battle for the rest of us. URLs (including the very one you're looking at now!) are that bit safer from thieves and pirates because of the victory described in this book.

But oh how close, in the dying days of the saga, victory looked like turning to the sourest possible defeat!

Rush to your credit card wallet and buy this book now. Buy two: you're sure to know a net fiend who'll find it instructive and enthralling.

This is a highly readable book about the legal battle between Gary Kremen and Stephen Cohen for ownership of the 'sex.com' domain name.

While the focus is specifically on the battles fought over the sex.com domain name, a number of broader intellectual property and domain name management issues are also covered.

Establishing and enforcing ownership of intellectual property in a virtual world operating largely across (if not outside) territorial boundaries is fascinating. On one level, this is a book about a battle between two intelligent and driven men (and their lawyers) for a lucrative piece of virtual real estate. On another level, it is about 'managing' aspects of the the internet. Or is it?

Gary Kremen has since sold the domain name for some $US 12 million.

Recommended to those interested in real crime as well as those interested in intellectual property issues.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This is an exciting and gripping book. I found myself turning pages as fast as when reading other non-fiction thrillers like Marc Bowden's Killing Pablo.

You don't have to be into technology and domain names to enjoy this book. If you're into crime books or law, you'll find this story fascinating.

The Triple-X case and process at ICANN was something like a never-ending-story on the ICANN agenda. From its beginning, it was as controversial as contradictory when the ICANN Board decided first No (Lisbon 2007) and now Yes (Brussels 2010). And the debate around the [...] domain was a good case study on options, limits and edges of Internet Governance. Whoever believes in a kind of coherent rationality in governance procedures or a wisdom in decision making processes etc. should read Kieren McCarthy's book on [...]: One Domain, Two Men, Twelve Years and the Brutal Battle for the Jewel in the Internet's Crown. The author shows the other side of the coin: the hypocrisy about fact findings, actors and influences behind the curtain, the power of lobbies and their crusades and the significance of archaic terms like "Morality" in recent debates of the digital age. Kieren McCarthy's book tells you all about the front and backside of the Triple-X case and it's an exciting story from the Internet Governance regulation front. It's for once not a technical and serious reading but a pleasure of discovering divers facets on an issue. It's easily readable even for non-native English speakers/readers. And afterwards you understand much more about the interns of the Domain Name business.

If you are interested in domain names, the Internet, its history, real life crime stories or just want a page turning read then buy this book.

It's an amazing story about 2 very different fascinating men who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Well written short chapters make it an easy page turning read that will keep you hooked throughout. If I wasn't true you'd think it was a great work of fiction and would be lining up to buy the sequel.

For anyone looking to take a peek under the covers as to how a) the porn business works and b) how the governance of the internet works this is a must read.

The persistence of Gary Kremen against all the odds and formidable opponents in the form of Cohen and Network Solutions should be an inspirations to many who have much smaller battles to fight. If you are right....keep fighting.

I couldn't put the book down until I had finished it.

A really great book, very interesting! It reads like a thriller and yet explaines in detail what the .com business is about. Very nice, it is clear that the author must have done extensive research!