The huns yellow pages com registration#

'But they didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. 'They wanted to open the Caesar's Palace of brothels,' said one brothel owner who declined to be identified. If Sporting Houses had sold shares to the public, regulations would have required that every shareholder be investigated. The Nevada county that houses Sheri's Ranch requires that brothel owners undergo a thorough licensing investigation. Even if Sporting Houses had found a seller, it faced huge obstacles. According to people familiar with the matter, neither the owner of Sheri's Ranch nor any other brothel owner in Nevada would sell out to the California upstarts. 'Imagine, being able to buy your own condominium on Fantasy Island.'īut plans for Wanaleiya fell through. 'At present, the Company is negotiating the acquisition of an entire island in the Caribbean for the purpose of developing the Ultimate Fantasy Island,' Cohen wrote in a 1996 press release. That encouraged the firm to dream even bigger. Investors loved the deal, Sporting Houses claimed. It posted the prospectus for its offering on Sex.com. Named Wanaleiya, the Polynesian-themed resort would feature 500 exotic women who 'would not hesitate to see to your comfort and pleasure.' To finance the dream, the parent company, Sporting Houses Management Corporation, would sell shares to the public. In January 1996, the group unveiled its bid to buy a Nevada brothel called Sheri's Ranch and transform it into a $100 million 'adult fantasy resort.' The grandest plan had little to do with the Internet. In late 1995, with Kremen temporarily stymied in his attempts to regain the domain, Cohen and four Orange County entrepreneurs dreamed up big plans for Sex.com. She had been stealing funds from The French Connection, Cohen's suit alleged. While in prison, he sued his wife, whom he met at The Club and later married at a swingers' convention in Las Vegas. Shortly thereafter, he was convicted in the bankruptcy case and sent to prison. Cohen moved The Club elsewhere, and the charges were dropped. After neighbors complained, police arrested Cohen in 1990 on charges of operating a sex club in a residential zone. Hundreds of couples met at 'The Club' on Friday and Saturday nights to swap partners.

'It's what became Sex.com today.'īy the late '80s, Cohen had set up a real-world meeting place for French Connection swingers at a home in Orange County, California. 'It was a very, very lucrative business,' Cohen said. 'There was no 'dot com' in 1979.'Īccording to Cohen, people interested in perusing The French Connection's 'Sex.com' paid him monthly, yearly, or even lifetime membership fees. Kremen dismisses the assertion as patently absurd. Back then, he said, Sex.com stood for 'Sex Communications.' In an early interview, before Kremen raised his allegations, Cohen claimed that he had been using the Sex.com name since 1979, as part of The French Connection, an electronic bulletin board he founded for 'swingers, nudist camps, and alternative lifestyles.' BBSs were the primary source of digital porn before the Web. 'He called and said he was a lawyer from the Patent and Trademark Office, and that I had no case,' said Kremen. Kremen says he subsequently discovered that the 'attorney' was Cohen himself. Kremen would have sued long ago, he said, but he received a call from someone identifying himself as a trademark attorney who said a lawsuit wouldn't hold up, that Cohen had the trademark on the Sex.com name. He's also suing Network Solutions for doing nothing about it. He filed a lawsuit against Cohen for fraud in the summer of 1998. 'It's insane,' Kremen says of the policy. 'It's up to the two parties to work it out,' says Cheryl Regan, a Network Solutions spokeswoman. While Network Solutions declined comment on the Kremen case, it did reaffirm its basic policy. Because of the policy, Network Solutions wouldn't give Sex.com back to Kremen, even after he told them he hadn't authorized the transfer. Since July 1995, it has been Network Solutions' policy that domain disputes are a matter solely between the disputing parties. 'It's like someone forging the title to your house and then taking it over,' says an incredulous Kremen. 'I woke up one morning, and it was gone,' he says. But on 18 October, he noticed that Sex.com was no longer his. The transfer was completed on or about 17 October 1995.

The huns yellow pages com registration#

Further, we have no objections to your use of the domain name sex.com and this letter shall serve as our authorization to the internet registration to transfer sex.com to your corporation.'Īrmed with the letter, Cohen convinced Network Solutions to transfer the rights to Sex.com to his company, Sporting Houses Management.

The letter concludes with an instruction from Dimmick to Cohen: 'Because we do not have a direct connection to the internet, we request that you notify the internet registration on our behalf, to delete our domain name sex.com.