Live Current Media pulls out a profit after cutting costs.

Live Current Media has reported a profit for the third quarter of 2009. The company released earnings of $703,000 on quarterly revenues of $1.757 million.

The move from the red to the black wasn’t due to a better top line; it was due to drastic cost cutting. Revenue was down 10%, but gross margin was up from 18% in Q3 2008 to 32.7% in Q3 2009. General and administrative costs were down 74% compared to the same quarter last year.

The company’s main revenue producing asset now is Perfume.com. The company has completely exited the cricket business with the sale of cricket.com and the assignment of its cricket rights. It also has a 55% ownership stake in Karate.com, which went live as a web site this past quarter.

Live Current Media has announced that it reduced the salary of its CEO from CDN$300,000 to CDN$120,000 effective February 1, 2009.

New Jersey hands down first every indictment for domain theft.

New Jersey today handed down an indictment (pdf) against Daniel Goncalves, alleged thief of the P2P.com domain name. The Division of Criminal Justice Major Crimes/Computer Analysis & Technology Unit obtained a seven-count state grand jury indictment for theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, computer theft, and identity theft, all in the second degree, and three counts of fourth-degree falsifying records.

Goncalves was arrested in July after an investigation by New Jersey police. He allegedly broke into a GoDaddy account owned by P2P.com, LLC and transferred the domain away. He later sold it on eBay for over $100,000 to NBA basketball player Mark Madsen.

In a press release, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said, “In the big money marketplace of the Internet, a popular domain name is like prime commercial real estate. The indictment charges that this defendant hacked into an online account of P2P.com, LLC, stole their domain name, and sold it to an unsuspecting customer on eBay for approximately $111,000.”

Domain owner: pack that in your pipe and smoke it!

Comedy duo Cheech & Chong have won rights to the CheechandChong.com domain name through arbitration at World Intellectual Property Organization.

Did you ever think you’d see “Cheech & Chong” and WIPO in the same sentence?

I first wrote about this story back in September, predicting that the comedians would win the case. But it wasn’t as clear cut as I originally thought. As it turns out, Cheech & Chong first objected to the use of the domain name in 2004. In 2006, possibly after smoking a joint, they felt peaceful and acquiesced, letting the domain owner use the domain.

But then the comedians reunited in 2008 for a tour and wanted the domain name. They couldn’t work out a deal with the owner, so they revoked any license to use their trademark in the domain name.

Cheech & Chong still won the dispute despite at one point agreeing to let the respondent use the domain. But it wasn’t as simple as it may have been.

Don’t expect an explanation from Nelson Brady any time soon.

When I cover a major domain industry event, I like to get both sides of the story. So when the news about the SnapNames insider bidding scandal broke, one of my first calls was to the man allegedly at the center of the controversy, former SnapNames VP Nelson Brady.

Instead of writing about the conversation then, I wanted to wait until I had a chance to have a more in-depth discussion with Brady or his attorney. I talked to Brady’s attorney last week, and he indicated that neither he nor his client will discuss the matter at this time.

In my brief conversation with Brady the day after the news broke, he indicated two things. First, he wouldn’t implicate others in the alleged scheme [Update: A number of people have interpreted this wording to mean that he is covering for other people. I didn't have a pen and paper when I talked to Brady, so this isn't a direct quote. Essentially, I asked him if other people were involved in the alleged activity and he said no.] Second, he said there’s more to the story.

What “more to the story” means isn’t something I’m willing to speculate about.

I’m personally trying to look forward more than backward, and would like to focus on what the industry can do to make sure this sort of thing never happens again. Alas, going forward will probably require understanding what happened in the past.

LaFountaine.com leads sales chart, but also interesting .cc and .mobi sale.

Sedo has completed the sale of LaFontaine.com for $50,000, its top reported sale of the past week. LaFontaine is a common last name, and means “fountain” in French.

The domain broker also completed a number of sales from its one and two character .de auction and its one character .biz auction.

.DE auction sales over 5,000 EUR
a.de 32,111 EUR
ok.de 21,956 EUR
18.de 16,500 EUR
uk.de 14,000 EUR
fm.de 10,100 EUR
cs.de 10,000 EUR
nu.de 7,000 EUR
ua.de 5,355 EUR
u2.de 5,352 EUR
cu.de 5,200 EUR
pl.de 5,100 EUR
ro.de 5,000 EUR

.BIZ auction sales
a.biz 10,099 USD
g.biz 9,400 USD
s.biz 8,211 USD
6.biz 8,100 USD

On the .com side, notable sales include Deputy.com at $27,500 and Meeter.com at $25,000. Here are other .com sales for the week:

flydrive.com 21,000 USD
pratique.com 19,000 EUR
buy24.com 18,000 USD
grooves.com 16,853 USD
manhandle.com 15,000 USD
ujam.com 9,500 USD
affiches.com 8,300 USD
qparty.com 7,000 EUR
green-power.com 5,500 USD
sukar.com 5,500 USD
eclairage.com 5,495 EUR
doxtv.com 5,000 USD
nychotelnetwork.com 5,000 USD
datavortex.com 5,000 USD

ccTLD sales weren’t limited to the .de auction. Not the sale of Gamble.cc, a very high price for a .cc domain.

rbsm.nl 11,900 EUR
hildegardvonbingen.de 11,900 EUR
cams.de 10,600 EUR
donedeal.co.uk 10,001 EUR
wisdom.co.uk 10,000 USD
birminghamnews.us 9,000 USD
reprisemedia.be 5,950 EUR
reprisemedia.it 5,950 EUR
gamble.cc 5,000 EUR
myhobby.de 5,000 EUR
fly.co.za 5,000 USD
rucksacks.co.uk 5,000 GBP
cruise-deals.co.uk 4,900 GBP

In the new TLD category, standouts include Portland.org at $10,000 and CheapFlights.mobi at $8,750. Pew.org sold for $10,000. I suspect the buyer is the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the domain is currently forwarding to its web site.

bra.net 7,400 USD
bankruptcylawyers.org 4,500 USD
otaku.net 4,500 USD
ename.net 4,000 USD
einbaukueche.org 3,250 EUR
collected.info 3,000 USD
fruitmachines.net 2,900 GBP