Welcome to the future, where technology changes our lives and creates new legal issues faster than lawyers can fashion doctrines to accommodate them. Internet law encompasses the entire universe of legal issues that arise from technology’s effect on every aspect of our employment and personal lives. The daily news is full of Internet law issues, damning emails, leaky security, text messaging scandals and myspace confessions.

Since my admission to the California Bar in 1987, I have put in over twenty years practicing law. I have been a securities litigator, a trademark enforcement lawyer, a plaintiffs personal injury lawyer, a prosecutor, a federal public defender, and then, quite surprisingly, the lead lawyer for the recovery of Sex.Com, the world’s most valuable domain name. After accomplishing that feat over the course of twenty months, lots of people assumed I was an Internet lawyer …

In 1999, I ran into Gary Kremen, and together we transformed his theoretical interest in the stolen Sex.com domain name into a reality. In 2003, Gary and I scored a legal first: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Internet domain names are personal property under California law. While that might seem obvious, given that Gary sold it in 2006 for around $14 Million, it was far from obvious back in 1999 …