If you own an Internet domain name it can be equated to property such as homes and cars, a US court has ruled.

In a case involving a dispute over the ownership of sex.com, the court also ruled that a Web registry, in this case Network Solutions, is responsible for safeguarding domain names for its owners.

Network Solutions, according to the court, could also be liable for damages after a convicted forger purloined ownership of www.sex.com from an e-commerce entrepreneur.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski said courts should treat domain names, despite their virtual nature, exactly as they treat 'a plot of land'.

CNN said Gary Kremen, who had filed a complaint against Network Solutions and Stephen Michael Cohen, was happy with the verdict. Cohen has served several prison stints for bank fraud and forgery.

"This was major victory, no doubt about it," Kremen was quoted as saying by CNN.

Cohen, in 2001, was ordered by a court to pay Kremen $65 million in damages. The compensation amount was roughly the same Cohen made by using the sex.com domain name.

Kremen, by that court order, had also won the rights to sex.com, which he has expanded to dozens of other porn sites. Kremen, founder of Online Classified, had requested for and received from NSI the rights to sex.com in 1994.

The roots of the ownership controversy, however, can be traced to 1995, when Cohen sent NSI a letter from a fictional administrator at Online Classifieds, saying the company had fired Kremen and no longer wanted sex.com.

NSI complied without confirming details with Kremen. It also gave the name to the next person -- Cohen -- to request it. Within months Cohen built sex.com into a multi-million dollar business.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals questioned the decision of NSI to switch domain name registry without crosschecking with Kremen as also complying with Cohen's request not to email anyone at Kremen's company Online Classifieds.

Agencies