Sex sells - internet domain sex.com to be auctioned

One of the world's most valuable internet domain names, sex.com, will go under the hammer at an auction next week, days after the possible creation of an entirely new internet domain for adult websites: .xxx.

The question of how much someone would be willing to pay for sex will be answered on March 18 when the domain name is auctioned off. Bidding will start at $1m dollars, but is expected to go a lot higher than that.

When it was last on the market in 2006, the name sold for $14m. However, the Boston-based company that brought it, Escom, was caught up in the credit crunch and could not repay its debts. It has now been forced to offload its assets, including sex.com, which is thought to be one of its most valuable.

It might be hard to put a value on sex in tough economic times, but the rather less exotic sounding site pizza.com raised $2.5m in 2008 and toys.com was worth $5m.

The winner of the auction will get the URL www.sex.com as well as licensing and intellectual property rights associated with the name.

The sex.com domain name has had a colourful history since it was first registered in 1994 by Gary Kremen, founder of dating website match.com. However it was the subject of a long-running legal dispute after entrepreneur Stephen Cohen was accused of stealing it by sending a fake fax to the domain carrier asking for it to be transferred to him.

It was claimed that at one point Cohen was making between $50,000 and $500,000 per month from the site through advertising and affiliate marketing. Kremen eventually got the name back and the legal battle was even the subject of a book.

Sex.com has been described as the jewel in the internet's crown, but by the time it changes hands it could have some competition from an entirely new domain.

Plans to revisit the idea of a .xxx suffix for adult websites will be discussed this week at a meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The triple-x domain name has been mooted before, and came close to becoming a reality in 2007 before ICANN withdrew the idea in the face of pressure from conservative and religious groups, mainly in America.

But the idea will be back on the table at ICANN's meeting in Nairobi after the ICM Registry, which came up with the .xxx suggestion in 2001, won a challenge against ICANN's decision to abandon the plan.

Supporters of the plan say that the .xxx idea enables a corner of the internet to be dedicated to adult sites, and that it makes it easier for parents and employers to filter out inappropriate material. Critics point out that adult sites will also be free to continue using other suffixes. ·