EURid, the organisation that administers the .eu top-level domain, has suspended 74,000 domain names after launching a lawsuit against 400 American registrars for "breach of contract".
The domains in question were all registered for three UK-based limited companies, Ovidio Ltd, Fausto Ltd and Gabino Ltd. Between them the three companies registered 74,000 names.
According to EURid, the three companies are a front for a "syndicate" of 400 US-based registrars, who stand accused of "warehousing" the domain names — registering them speculatively for resale, rather than following a client's request.
The organisation said on Monday that abusing the registration system could lead to a "risk that the perceived value of .eu will decrease, not only for the almost two million legitimate holders of .eu domain names but also for all fair registrars".
"As a registrar, you should have an end user ask you to register a domain name for you before you can register it," EURid's Patrik Linden explained to ZDNet UK on Monday.
"Since they cannot do that in their own name, we say they have registered the domains using these three companies as a front… also, as they are American, they could not have done this, but that is a separate issue," he added.
Linden was keen to point out that legitimate purchasers of .eu domains have not had their domains suspended, saying: "If you are the holder, you're not affected".
A search on the Companies House website lists the "nature of business" of Ovidio Ltd — the only company of the three to appear there — as "market research, opinion polling".
However, EURid claims the three companies "can be regarded as one and the same", and a trawl through their static-page websites does indeed display identical text, with only the names of the companies differing.
The companies' websites were all registered through an American firm called Domains By Proxy, Inc.
Domains with a .eu extension became generally available earlier this year, following a "sunrise period" where European companies and organisations got first option on their names and trademarks.
The launch was nonetheless plagued with complaints — including this one from registration company GoDaddy's founder Bob Parsons — that registrars were stockpiling domains by the thousand.
Talkback
Huge irony: Bob Parsons has been railing on these three bogus registrars. People could have found out the true identities behind the three registrars through their web site's Whois information, but they are all using GoDaddy's privacy service to hide their true identities :)
http://domainnamewire.com/2006/07/24/eurid-suspends-74000-eu-registrations/
Ofcourse, starting a compliant will get you a charge of about EUR 1900 by EurID. It's almost as if they wanted things to go wrong significantly.
I know plenty of companies that made a valid request during SunRise and got the burocrated end of the stick. Only to find out that someone who has no relationship whatsoever with their name got it registrated anyway. Never mind registered trademark name registers and what not.
The overall result? A few privileged companies got to stuck their pockets full. The rest of the world is starting to ignore it. Including the EU names. Why bother typing in an EU name? Chances are you're not going to end up where you would like to end up. You might as well start with a national name first.
The irony is that by stockpiling the bad EU registars have thrown their own glasses in. It's getting to become cheaper to simply make up a new name (or your own name if that's still free) and register that in a few national domains. A simple URL rewrite (standard DNS service nowedays) will point it right back to your already up and running national web site. All you need to do now is to add a few languages (but you needed to do that with an EU name anyway) and voila. Next thing on the future to-do list: cancel the EU registrations in time. And blacklist bad EU registars.
Oh. Next runner up. The registration of EU IDN's. Or International Domain Names. EurID shut the door on that despite plenty of companies (and people) registering an IDN during SunRise. So guess who's going to stockpile EU IDN's in the future? Surely not EU registers again?
'… also, as they are American, they could not have done this, but that is a separate issue," he added.'
What 'separate issue'? First, why are there .EU names at all? Why are there national TLD at all? To what end? Second ... none that I can think of.
Why are new ways of dividing human beings always being sought? Nationalism, when it is not for the purpose of liberation from colonialism, is a blight upon humanity.