This all started when the Nets wanted to gain control over the nets.com URL and made an offer to a New Mexico computer services company that had long controlled it. The company wanted more, reportedly $5 million. The Nets declined to pay and since then, it's been a cyberwar.
It's not cyber-squatting. Cyber Mesa Computer Systems has controlled the URL since 1994, even before the introduction of Netsscape Navigator and Windows 95 -- and a full decade before the Nets announced their move to Brooklyn.
So, with the Nets unwilling to talk, the site's owners have made it clear that they will engage in a campaign of annoyance against the team, on occasion redirecting those to go to nets.com to the Knicks site; a page showing Mark Cuban sticking his tongue out; other teams the Nets are playing and now, the week after Mikhail Prokhorov reinvigorated the Jason Kidd issue, to the Nets' former coach's official site.
They have also put the site on EBay presumably hoping for a six or seven figure bid, but so far, the bids have only reached the mid-five figures. There is a reserve number as well. If the highest bidder doesn't reach that undisclosed number, the owner can take it down. Bidding ends next Wednesday afternoon.
If the Nets do ultimately decide to buy the site, one of the few NBA team names not under the control of the league or a team, it won't be the first time. A Brooklyn resident smartly registered brooklynnets.com a decade ago, and reportedly sold it to the team not long before the team move.
- Trolling over Nets.com continues - Mike Mazzeo - ESPN New York
- The Nets domain, currently up for auction, now redirects to Jason Kidd's Official Website - Devin Kharpertian - The Brooklyn Game