Sex.com: One Domain, Two Men, Twelve Years and the Brutal Battle for the Jewel in the Internet's Crown
Paperback – May 17, 2007
by Kieren M McCarthy (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 on Goodreads
With five million page views every day, sex.com was the most valuable piece of virtual real estate on the planet. 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. It took ten years and millions of dollars, but Kremen eventually saw, and, on occasion, forced Cohen to pay for his crimes. This is the inside 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 law, and shaped the history and development of the Internet as we know it.
Not a movie, but I liked the book. I couldn't put it down.
https://www.amazon.com/Sex-com-Domain-Twelve-Brutal-Internets/dp/1905204663
Interesting from wikipedia:
"According to court documents, Cohen fraudulently obtained the lucrative
Internet domain name Sex.com in May 1995 from the original registrant,
Gary Kremen, who had registered it in May 1994. Cohen obtained the domain by means of a forged letter to domain registrar
Network Solutions, faxed from Kremen's company "Online Classified", fraudulently stating that Kremen had been dismissed and the firm was abandoning the domain and that Cohen could have it. Network Solutions blindly accepted the fax with no verification and transferred the domain to Cohen, an action that would prove grounds for a later civil suit by Kremen against Network Solutions.
[5] It is estimated that Cohen illegally earned
US$100 million between October 1995 and November 2000 from his ownership of sex.com.
In April 2001, the court ordered damages of $65 million be paid to Kremen. Cohen left the United States in 2001 and was living in
Tijuana, Mexico, when he was arrested on October 28, 2005.
[6] As of 2011 the amount of damages owed to Kremen had increased to $82 million with interest and Cohen to this date, has refused to pay one penny towards the judgment.
[6]
Cohen was held in a civil contempt for failure to disclose his assets. He was released from custody on December 5, 2006, by
Judge Ware because "Kremen has failed to locate evidence of hidden bank accounts or other assets.”
[7] Courts have ruled in Kremen's favor several times since 2006, with evidence that seven individuals, including some of Cohen's family members, and twelve companies were used to help him hide the money."