The Economist is running a fascinating story on the Internet itself. The main pitch is that the Internet was a great global unifier in its early years. But now that governments and law enforcement agencies have caught on to the Internet's power and ability to transcend any boundary, be it physical, geographical or legal, they are increasingly trying to control it. The result is a strong risk of seeing the Internet splintered and as such becoming less effective as a planetary communication tool, with less innovation and less user benefit and choice.

Read the article here, or click on "continue reading" for a glimpse of the article.

I naturally keep a close watch on all domain name related topics. One of fun side effects is seeing fan and geek sites scramble for clues about upcoming films or products as soon as a new domain is registered. Media and entertainment companies must have a hell of a time hiding their new projects while at the same time protecting their intellectual property by registered the relevant domains…

I especially love leaks like FantasticFourReborn.com, a domain spotted by fan sites as being registered by Fox, and hence the source of some speculation that the Fantastic Four movie reboot will be entitled "Reborn".

Could be, although it must be said that movie studios are becoming more and more adept at generating buzz around "false positives", i.e. domains that are registered as realistic possibilities just to throw people off the scent. So far, there's no working website behind www.FantasticFourReborn.com. But that could change.

So intense was the sex.com saga that my good friend Kieren McCarthy, ex ICANN manager of public participation, even wrote a book about it. Will the last chapter of this story be written tomorrow, when the name comes up for auction in New York?

Domain name and Internet watchers around the world will no doubt focus their attention on New York tomorrow, where sex.com is set to come up for auction.

The most famous domain name in the world is more Hollywood than geek. Sex.com was first registered by Gary Kremen (who later went on to launch match.com) in 1994 with what was then the world's only registrar for .COM, Network Solutions.

The following year, Kremen realized that he was no longer listed as the owner of the name. A guy called Stephen Michael Cohen has simply sent a forged fax to Network Solutions asking for the name to be transferred, and Netsol has done so without even checking!

A drawn out legal battle ensued, Cohen even went as far as fleeing the US to avoid getting caught, but Kremen eventually won the rights to his domain back. Sex.com was by then an extremely valuable piece of Internet real-estate. It is said that at one point, the name bringing in $15,000 a day!

In 2006, he sold sex.com to a company called Escom LLC for a reported $14 million, although the actual amount has never been officially confirmed. Escom made the deal with a loan from DOM partners, and was then unable to repay.

To try and get some of their money back, DOM Partners are putting the name up for auction. To take part, potential buyers must stump up a $1 million certified cheque.

How much will the name go for? In today's economy, are people prepared to speculate millions of dollars on a domain name? All will be revealed tomorrow…

Domain names, a laughing matter? Not in a million years, or so I thought. Turns out I was wrong. Either that or I've become such a complete DN anorak it's just too sad for words. Either way, I love this video that Cédric Manara (a clear DN anorak if ever there was one J) found and told me about. Enjoy.