Thief Pleads Guilty, May Spend 5 Years in Jail — Domain Name

Fresh Jersey man expected to serve regarding five years in jail for domain theft.

The man accused of stealing the P2P.com domain name and selling it to NBA player Mark Madsen has entered a guilty plea in a Fresh Jersey criminal case.

Daniel Goncalves, 26, of Union Township, pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and computer theft, all in the second degree, ahead of Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim in Union County. As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors will ask for him to serve five years in state prison.

In 2006 Goncalves logged into the Go Daddy account that held P2P.com domain name and then transferred it to his own Go Daddy account. Go Daddy logs showed that the same IP address was used to log in to both the P2P.com account to transfer out the domain and to Goncalves’ account to receive the domain name.

This is huge and welcome news for the domain name industry. Domain theft happens every day but rarely does anything come of it from a legal standpoint. Pinning down thieves across the world is very difficult.

More info: Fresh Jersey Attorney General