Learning that a California man was able to fake domain registrar VeriSign out of Arab news agency Al-Jazeera's domain name during the U.S.-Iraq war, Sex.com's owner could only think of how little had changed from 1995, when his domain was similarly hijacked from what was then Network Solutions.
But whether John W. Racine II's case helps Kremen's bid to hold VeriSign accountable in Stephen Cohen's Sex.com hijack eight years ago won't be known until or unless the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decides to restore the case to the lower district courts.
Cohen hijacked Sex.com from Kremen by way of a forged letter. Racine hijacked Al-Jazeera's Internet domain by way of forging himself as Al-Jazeera's systems administrator, then re-routed surfers to his pro-U.S. Web pages during late March. He pleaded guilty June 12.
"The only thing that changes is they try to limit their liability," said Kremen of VeriSign. "Isn't that terrible? It happened to me in 1995, and in 2003, eight years later, you don't change your policies? Ask for a notary. Ask for a bond. Ask for a signature.
"It's mind boggling to me. Other domain name registrars have some very strict policies," he continued. "They make you get a bond. They make you get one of these medallion signature guarantees. They make the person who owned it before transfer it from their e-mail address themselves."
Kremen said, however, that if the 9th Circuit Court does restore his action against VeriSign to the lower federal court, the Racine/Al-Jazeera case might well mean he can "show something that we couldn't show the first time": proof that Sex.com wasn't the only domain, adult or any business, that could be stolen by identity theft.
"In the district court I was only able to show my own case, but I believe there might be hundreds," he said. "But I wasn't able to get any discovery, legally. And VeriSign moved very fast. That's not going to happen again. I didn't know a lot about fighting or about my enemies, but now I know. I was blitzkrieged. Now it won't happen again."
Kremen doubts, however, that the Racine plea agreement will prod the 9th Circuit Court to get to his matter faster. "If you can read judges and juries, you should quit your job right now and become a soothsayer," he chuckled. "I'm still waiting. Still trying to rebuild a business. Still trying to find Cohen."
Cohen remains out of the United States. He was last reported in Mexico, claiming to be under house arrest.
Racine is scheduled for a June 16 arraignment on his plea bargain, and the U.S. Attorney is expected to call only for probation and community service. He could have seen as much as 25 years behind bars and $500,000 in fines if convicted at trial.
