p2p news / p2pnet: “Four years after dodging a $65-million court judgment by fleeing the country, former online-porn mogul Stephen Michael Cohen was arrested by Mexican authorities in Tijuana and handed over Thursday to U.S. agents,” says the LA Times.

“Cohen, a multiple felon and longtime con man, had been on the run since before 2001, when a judge ordered him to pay a San Francisco entrepreneur for hijacking the Internet address Sex.com. In 1995, Cohen forged a letter to Internet authorities to gain control of the address, which he transformed into a highly profitable site for pornography ads.”

The Associated Press says the “lucrative” sex.com primarily hosts ads for other sex-related sites, quoting Gary Kremen, who’s “fought Cohen for years” over sex.com, as saying he’d spent $4.5 million in legal fees trying to regain control of it.

Kremen obtained several of Cohen’s US assets, “including a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, a San Diego suburb,” says AP, adding, “Kremen also founded match.com, a dating Web site he has since sold.”

Remember ES5 – EarthStation 5? The lamescream media couldn’t resist a p2p network run by Palestinian freedom fighters and their Jewish and Christian brothers and sisters, all battling for freedom from the West Bank. Only Mickey Mouse was missing.

“Earthstation 5, the peer-to-peer software developer that declared war on the entertainment industry and told them to ‘fuck off,’ officially announced that they’ve hired Sex.com’s former owner Stephen Michael Cohen as a consultant,” said Waxy.org last year.

“The Economist originally broke the story in the U.S., after first being discovered by German technology magazine c’t. Cohen is a good fit for the controversial company, having built a small empire on shady business practices and evading the law. In their background story of the Sex.com domain dispute, Salon.com summed him up as a ‘a convicted felon with a penchant for offshore investing, porn and Internet empire-building.’ After being handed a $65 million judgement in the case, he fled to Mexico to avoid paying up.

“Sounds like a perfect match, no?”

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

See:-
LA Times – Hijacker of ‘Sex.com’ Is Arrested, October 28, 2005
Associated Press – Man accused of stealing sex.com domain arrested in Mexico, October 28, 2004
Waxy.org – Earthstation 5 Hires Sex.com’s Stephen Michael Cohen, January 6, 2004

This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2005 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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