Sex.com hijacker Stephen Cohen isn't the only one who has tricked VeriSign (formerly Network Solutions, Inc.), into passing him someone else's domain name. A California man who faked them into giving him ownership of Arab news service Al-Jazeera's domain name in March pleaded guilty to the hijack June 12.
Web designer John W. Racine II got the Al-Jazeera domain by forging the signature of their systems engineer and using a fake photo identification in getting VeriSign to give him the domain in the early phase of the U.S.-Iraq war, according to CNET.com.
That gave Racine control of all Al-Jazeera's Web information, including Web page requests and e-mail. He was then able to redirect surfers looking to visit Al-Jazeera's pages to other pages, hosted at NetWorld, showing American flags and "Let freedom ring" messages, beginning March 24.
Racine's redirection hack occurred not long after Al-Jazeera came under fire for its war news coverage, including the showing of prisoners of war and dead American soldiers, but when Racine's hack redirection made national and even world news within three days, VeriSign suspended the Al-Jazeera account
The plea agreement includes an admission by Racine that he knew he was breaking the law with his Al-Jazeera domain theft and that he had cooperated with the FBI and other investigators. He faced as much as 25 years behind bars and a $500,000 fine, originally, CNET.com said, but the U.S. Attorney is expected to ask for only three years' probation and 1,000 hours' community service. Racine's arraignment is set for June 16.
In 1995, Stephen Cohen used a forged letter to lift Sex.com from Gary Kremen. Kremen took Cohen to court and beat him in 2001, winning a $65 million damage assessment that inspired Cohen to flee rather than pay while appealing the damages, claiming still that he's under house arrest in Mexico.
But the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Cohen's appeal on June 10, all but ending Kremen's battle with him directly. The Sex.com owner is still trying to hold VeriSign to account for the domain name being heisted in the first place.
Kremen charges VeriSign with inadequately safeguarding his domain name, but VeriSign has maintained domain names aren't properly-construed property and, therefore, they weren't responsible for any negligent transfer. That phase of the Sex.com litigation still remains before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
"All domain name owners will benefit from the law this case has established," said one of Kremen's lead attorneys, Charles Carreon, in a statement issued following the Supreme Court's rejection of Cohen's appeal. "I trust that eventually, VeriSign will accept responsibility for its initial blunder, and pay Gary the damages that are due."
