Sex.com sells, again

THE DOMAIN NAME sex.com has sold for some $13 million (£8.2 million), and it's not the first time it has passed from one grubby hand to another.

This is the latest exchange for the top shelf domain, which was once stolen, and we suspect that this won't be the last time we hear about it, either.

Last time the domain name found itself in a plain brown paper bag it was reckoned to have set its owner back $14 million. That firm was Escom LLC which later went bankrupt and, as a result, looked to sell the dirty domain name on.

Apparently a dirty dozen of firms were after the domain name but, according to the BBC, it was eventually bought by Clover Holdings, which the BBC called "an obscure company registered on the Caribbean island of St Vincent", something that our lawyers said sounded 'completely legitimate'.

Although the domain name itself should be scandalous, the handling of it has gathered the most headlines, not least of all when it was pinched by Stephen Cohen.

For his troubles, which included more than a few hours in courtrooms, Cohen was fined $65 million, which makes the present value of the domain name look positively softcore in comparison.

According to court papers (PDF), this latest sale is expected to be approved at the end of October and for now sex.com is still showing up as available on domain name marketplace Sedo.

No price is named but we have put in a speculative bid of $10. µ