You would think that a man who won the rights to the Sex.com domain would be living high on the hog.

But Gary Kremen says he hasn't seen a penny from his well-documented court exploits, which resulted in a $65 million settlement.

Now a San Francisco-based online non-profit, civil liberties organization is pointing the finger at VeriSign property Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI).

In an amicus brief filed Wednesday with the U.S. Northern District Of California, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says NSI is responsible for the mismanagement of the Sex.com domain name.

"A court has ruled that NSI can screw up its monopoly on dot-com domain name management and face no consequence for its actions," says EFF Intellectual Property Attorney Robin Gross. "We hope the appellate court will recognize the danger in eliminating all accountability for this key component of Internet governance."

In 2000, a lower court ruled that NSI, a private company, which is the sole domain name registry for dot-com domain names, is immune from civil suit in cases where it negligently handled a domain name. Sex.com then appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and EFF filed their brief.

VeriSign, which purchased Network Solutions in 2000 was not available for comment.

"And we don't expect them hear from them either," says Gross. "We filed this amicus during the briefing period. Next up is the oral arguments, but the judge in the case is not expected to rule on this for about three months."

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As to the reason for EFF's involvement, Kremen and Gross say it's a matter of principal.

"We want to make sure that that NSI and other domain registrars don't do this in the future," says Gross. "These companies need to be held responsible."

"Everyone reasonably assumes the registrar will prevent poaching of domain names. It's time the law backed that up," says Kremen.

Kremen has yet to receive his settlement money primarily because the other party skipped town.

U.S. District Judge James Ware found Stephen Cohen liable for fraud and forgery in a five-year battle over the ownership of the Sex.com URL. The judge slammed Cohen with a bill for $40 million in compensation for lost profits and an additional $25 million in punitive damages.

Cohen has not been seen since and is presumed to be living somewhere in Mexico.