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The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise Hardcover – April 9, 2019

by David Kushner (Author)

4.3 115 ratings

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“An engrossing microcosm of the internet's Wild West years” (Kirkus Reviews), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet today: love and sex.

In 1994, visionary entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. Only 5 percent of Americans were using the internet at the time, and even fewer were looking online for love. He quickly bought the Sex.com domain too, betting the combination of love and sex would help propel the internet into the mainstream.

Imagine Kremen’s surprise when he learned that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to Sex.com and was already making millions that Kremen would never see. Thus follows the wild true story of Kremen’s and Cohen’s decade-long battle for control. In The Players Ball, author and journalist David Kushner provides a front seat to these must-read Wild West years online, when innovators and outlaws battled for power and money.

This cat-and-mouse game between a genius and a con man changed the way people connect forever, and is key to understanding the rise and future of the online world.

“Kushner delivers a fast-paced, raunchy tale of sex, drugs, and dial-up.” —Publishers Weekly

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Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Simon & Schuster
Publication date

April 9, 2019
Dimensions

5.5 x 1 x 8.38 inches
ISBN-10

1501122142
ISBN-13

978-1501122149
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David Kushner

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“In The Player’s Ball…the internet gets the creepy, disturbing origin story that it deserves.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Kushner delivers another digestible look at transformations spurred by unpredictable technologies, turning the dry topic of domain-name battles into a lively representation of the era's hype, confusion, and outsized personalities... An easily consumed, worthwhile addition to the literature reconstructing how the online world has become both profitable and pervasive.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Award-winning journalist Kushner revisits this tumultuous period by recounting a quirky episode of website tug-of-war between two of the digital world’s most colorful pioneers.”
—Booklist

“A real-life Wade Watts, David Kushner found the Golden Easter Egg of internet history—the spy vs spy story of the struggle over Sex.com at the very dawn of the World Wide Web—and he tells the tale masterfully.”
—Adam Fisher, author of Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley

“David Kushner has written any number of remarkable books and articles about how the American tech industry has invaded our lives and dreams. With The Players Ball, he’s found his raunchiest, funniest, most fascinating story yet. You’ll tell yourself—frequently—while reading this book, ‘That can’t possibly be true,’ but it is. Then again, truth is stranger than fiction only when it’s this well told.”
—Tom Bissell, author of Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter

“As usual, Kushner delivers a funny and thorough history of some corner of our technological era. He also paints a compelling portrait of two men whose genius and obsession drives them to an almost operatic confrontation played out over decades. Fast and funny, but also tragic and bizarre, Kushner delivers what might be his most unusual and thought provoking work about two men both way ahead of, and emblematic of, their time.”
—Zak Penn, coscreenwriter of Ready Player One

“The epic battle of the internet visionary behind sex.com and the man who stole it right out from under him, making millions in the process. David Kushner brilliantly tells a fascinating and often hilarious true story about the early days of the web.”
—Terence Winter, creator and executive producer of Boardwalk Empire and screenwriter of The Wolf of Wall Street

“A brilliant tale.”
—Financial Times

"A fascinating tale, and Kushner tells it with brio and detail. It’s also an eye-opening account of how much of internet commerce grew, for good or ill, out of the sex industry’s willingness to do anything, and they mean anything, for a buck."
—Tampa Bay Times

About the Author

A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, David Kushner also writes for publications including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, New York, GQ, and Esquire. Kushner served as the digital culture commentator for National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Sunday, and has taught journalism at Princeton University and New York University. He has been featured in The Best Business Writing, The Best American Crime Reporting, and The Best Travel Writing, and his ebook The Bones of Marianna: A Reform School, a Terrible Secret, and a Hundred-Year Fight for Justice. His books include The Players Ball; Alligator Candy: A Memoir (an NPR Best Book of the Year); Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto; Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America’s Legendary Suburb; Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids: How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds and Stormed Las Vegas; and Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (April 9, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501122142
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501122149
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.38 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,168,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #342 in Computer & Technology Biographies
- #1,436 in Computers & Technology Industry
- #3,783 in Internet & Telecommunications

Customer Reviews:
4.3 115 ratings

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David Kushner

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David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. His books include Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids: How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds, Stormed Las Vegas, Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America’s Legendary Suburb, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, Alligator Candy: A Memoir, and The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise.

Kushner is also author of the graphic novel Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D, illustrated by Koren Shadmi, and the ebook, The Bones of Marianna: A Reform School, a Terrible Secret, and a Hundred-Year Fight for Justice. Two collections of his magazine stories are available as audiobooks, The World’s Most Dangerous Geek: And More True Hacking Stories and Prepare to Meet Thy Doom: And More True Gaming Stories.

A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, Kushner has written for publications including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, New York Times Magazine, New York, and GQ, and has been an essayist for National Public Radio. His work is featured in several “best of” anthologies: The Best American Crime Reporting, The Columbia Journalism Review’s Best Business Writing, The Best Music Writing, and The Best American Travel Writing. He is the winner of the New York Press Club award for Best Feature Reporting. His ebook The Bones of Marianna was selected by Amazon as a Best Digital Single of 2013. NPR named his memoir Alligator Candy one of the best books of 2016. He has taught as a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, and an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.

For articles and info, visit his website www.davidkushner.com.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

115 global ratings

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Nan Goss

Addictive read!

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

I devoured this book in two days!! I couldn’t put it down because there’s so many twists and turns and outrageous characters. I always love Kushner’s books because he manages to bring strange worlds (video game visionaries, high-school football heroes committing bank heists, Vegas card sharks, etc.) into focus, with humor and super compelling storytelling. The Players Ball is an unbelievable true story about these two genius tech entrepreneurs, one a dorky superpower and the other his sleazy, con artist nemesis, who obsessively battle for control, money, sanity and dangerous stakes. I cherish when I find a great story that I can’t put down, so I loved being transfixed by this battle. I learned a lot about what goes into starting a business, running a business, stealing a business and fighting to the death “Match”. I really loved this book and the unbelievable ending.

12 people found this helpful

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readable

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2019

This book is a mostly-readable look at the rise of the internet. Contrary to the book's title & subtitle, it's inaccurate to call Gary Kremen a "genius" and the history provided in this book was never a secret, just not widely told. Some problems: (1) on pages 27 and 37, "The Club" is described as operating in 1998; the correct date is 1988; (2) the author fails to describe how Kremen managed to seize the Sex.com website source code in addition to the domain name. Also, there is a typo that any spell-checker would have caught.

5 people found this helpful

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Phil Simon

Gripping

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2019

Verified Purchase

I feel silly for not knowing more about this story. I remember the dot.com days but somehow the tale of Kremen and Cohen escaped me.

Kushner tells a gripping tale over the battle of sex.com and I could barely put it down. The two protagonists were more similar than dissimilar—something that makes for an excellent read.

I'm sure that I'll be reading more of Kushner's books.

4 people found this helpful

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Allen

Great story told by a great author. As someone who witnessed this story from the sidelines from within the industry, it was both nostalgic personally and professionally.

This is a great moment in history that changed the we all interact online and the historic laws that came out of it.

Kudos to Kushner for telling this story. He has a knack for finding great characters and writing the story in a way that let's you get to know them.

Without pioneers like Kremen, Cohen, Seth, Levi, KBizzle, DMoney, J$tyles, Far-L, the billing company "Middle Men", Ian, and so many countless others-many of us would never of learned to type with one hand. So thank you.

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

A slice of internet history expertly told by a gifted writer about great personalities in one of the greatest IP battles. Thank you for giving me the ability to sell my domains.

6 people found this helpful

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K C

Awesome

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

This will be made into a movie!

2 people found this helpful

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john mcphee

This is PURE GOLD - read it!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2019

The true unvarnished story of the chaos that was the internet from 1993-2003. A true story with two unforgettable characters - worthy hero GARY Kremen and his far less worthy nemesis (for far too long). How The Good Guy Won The Internet!!

3 people found this helpful

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Nathan K. Rothstein

Read it over one weekend, so good!

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2019

This book was wildly entertaining. Love the image of these two enemies making phone calls taunting one another. What great insight into the 90s era internet era where so much of the e-commerce innovation was created so that men could by porn on the internet. Oh brother

3 people found this helpful

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Klhl13

Time Well Spent

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2019

I also devoured this book in two days. Just a really informative and hugely entertaining story. Kushner just did an outstanding job in telling this wild tale of these two incredible characters.

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