Penguin Putnam published a book titled Katie.com four years ago. It was the true story of Katherine Tarbox's encounter with a sexual predator she met from the Internet. However, the book has sparked much controversy over the last four years. Why? Because neither Penguin Putnam nor Katherine Tarbox owned the domain, Katie.com. The domain name belonged to Katie Jones, a woman who received much distress from the irresponsible behavior of powerful corporation. Besides receiving much disturbing email from fans of the book under the impression that it was Katherine Tarbox's site, Ms. Jones had to remove her original content from the site lest her personal and professional reputation be jeopardized.

Interestingly enough, Penguin Putnam and Katherine Tarbox  were originally going to title the book Girl.com, but the domain already belonged to a pornographic site, most likely owned by people wealthy enough to fight a corporation. Therefore, they chose the domain name of an average woman who lacked the resources to stand up to them. Ms. Jones asked them many times throughout the years to choose a more appropriate title, but both the corporation and the author chose instead to pressure Ms. Jones into donating it to them. A lawyer working with Ms. Tarbox even told Ms. Jones that things would "only get worse" if she didn't give up the domain name.

Four years later, with the support of many online communities, Penguin Putnam finally changed the book's title to A Girl's Life Online. It's a relief to know that a community can force wicked publishing companies and their malicious authors to do the right thing, even if it takes them four years to do so. What's most amazing is that this is the first time I've ever agreed with the Slashdot community!

It would be great if you could send Katie Jones a message congratulating her on the victory. Although I'm sure she's already bombarded with positive messages from Slashdot and The Register, she probably wouldn't mind a few more.