Katie.com is an autobiographical book that details how author Katie Tarbox was stalked and molested at age 13 by Frank Kufrovich, a pedophile and sexual predator whom she met on the Internet. Her book was controversial for the legal troubles it generated, among other things. It was published in 2000.
It was originally intended to name Tarbox's book Girl.com until it was realised that the domain was already in use for an adult website, so Katie.com was chosen instead. This was despite the fact that the domain http://www.katie.com/ had been owned by Katie Jones since 1996 and used for her own personal homepage. Penguin Putnam's decision to use the domain name as the book's title subsequently caused Ms. Jones a great deal of inconvenience by inaccurately associating her with Katie Tarbox and her story. Jones requested that Penguin stop using the domain as the book's title, but they ignored her pleas. Later, lawyer Parry Aftab asked Ms. Jones to "donate" her domain name to "the cause." Jones refused and Penguin eventually retitled the book A Girl's Life Online in August 2004.
As of 2008-05-29, the domain name katie.com was sold for $62,120 at Sedo.com by Justin Godfrey, a domain name investor, and is now the property of WebQuest, who dedicated the site to adult entertainment. Currently, the site is not in use.