Over the years there have been plenty of stories about dodgy dealings with domain names - from cybersquatters to the notorious, decade-long battle for ownership of sex.com. But prosecutors in the US have just found themselves a new angle - after a man in New Jersey was charged with stealing a domain name.
According to reports, 25-year-old Daniel Goncalves is alleged to have hacked into an online account three years ago to take control of the domain name P2P.com. He then, apparently, sold to professional basketball player Mark Madsen for $110,000.
Local newspaper the New Jersey Star-Ledger quotes detective Sgt John Gorman as explaining how "Goncalves was 'surprised' to find a tactical team of state police officers at his door at 6:30 Thursday morning". I'll bet he was.
The extra twist? The victim was a group including Houston-based domain gobbler Marc Ostrofsky, a well-known web name speculator who previously pocketed $7.5m for selling the business.com address in 1999. That was a record for the time, smashing the $150,000 he'd spent buying the domain in the first place a couple of years before.
Ostrofsky's no stranger to the courts himself: his company IREIT has hoovered up so many domains that it's been sued a couple of times, and back in 2006, Ask.com took exception to his attempt to push up the asking price for the ask.eu address (Arbitrators found in favour of Ask).
In the meantime, though, Goncalves is out on $60,000 bail: the case continues.
