EuroDNS fights against .fr Registry for the rights of all Domainers.

[FreddyS]

:veryangry
Does something similar happened already to someone else?
:veryangry

EuroDNS (European domain names registrar) is completely shocked!

More than 4000 domain names blocked! Thousands of Internet sites inaccessible! Innumerous e-mail addresses out of service! All this chaos, with all the consequences it brings with it, is the direct result of a precipitive action by AFNIC, the French Top Domain Registry.

AFNIC chose simply to block thousands of duly registered and paid for ‘.fr’ Domains with absolutely no prior warning or notice, and without any form of claims by third parties to justify their action.

Had such third party claims been registered, EuroDNS (http://www.eurodns.com)
, the AFNIC- accredited Registrar who registered the Domain names concerned, would have promptly taken the necessary steps to freeze any Domain name where an official dispute had been registered, as is the custom in this industry.

AFNIC’s one-sided action is thus particularly surprising as the organization loses any neutrality by contravening the established procedure for blocking a duly registered Domain, contrary to its own established rules of operation (see http://www.afnic.fr/doc/ref/juridique/parl#4)
In view of the business impact of such a one-sided action by AFNIC, EuroDNS is taking all possible steps to convince AFNIC to correct this matter as soon as possible and to resolve the situation. Such an independent and precipitive action by a supposable neutral authority cannot be tolerated in an open industry like the Internet, all the more so because of the major impact on the innocent parties involved - the Domain Name holders and their clients.

We will keep you fully informed of developments as they occur.

 

[easynet]

I registered .fr domain via eurodns and my domain blocked too. :veryangry

Afnic wrote:


Decision of the board of directors regarding the blocking of domain names
On October 21, 2004, the AFNIC's board of directors discussed the matter of Mr. Laurent Nunenthal, acting in his own name as a tradesman, using "EURODNS France" as a sign.

Mr. Laurent Nunenthal registered as a holder more than 4500 domain names, from May 11 to October 21 2004. Mr. Laurent Nunenthal's dealings have been repeatedly brought to attention of the AFNIC, especially by trademarks' holders. The aforesaid was warned as early as July 2004 that his practices might be opposed to the philosophy of the naming Charter. The members of the consultative committees hold on September 29 and 30, decided to take all useful steps facing prejudicial behaviours , contrary to the spirit of the naming Charter and to the legal duties of the AFNIC, regarding the law of July 9, 2004, about electronic communications and audiovisual communication services.

Terms of the resolution voted by the Board of Directors
In application of article 36 of the naming Charter, the board of directors decided, on the 21st of October, the blocking, for a three months period, of the domain names registered by Mr. Laurent Nunenthal and the displaying of the list on a public website page of the AFNIC, in order to enable interested parties to claim their rights.

The "blocking" operation consists of removing a domain name from the DNS service and making it inoperative. The domain name nevertheless continues to be present in the Whois database (identified by the entries "Suspend" or "Inactif ") and continues to belong to the registrant. The blocked domain name cannot therefore be registered by a third party.

Schedule
Blocking of the domain names: Friday, 22 October, 2004
Displaying of the list of the domain names affected by the blocking operation : Wednesday, 27 October 2004


Advice note to beneficiaries of domain names registered by Mr. Laurent Nunenthal
The decision of blocking affects domain names of which the holder is identified by Mr. Laurent Nunenthal's SIREN number as a French tradesman. Registered names through EuroDNS acting as a registrar, of which Mr. Laurent Nunenthal is not the holder, are not involved by this matter.

Some non French individuals or structures may have suffered from this decision if they registered .fr domain names and authorizing Mr. Nunenthal to register himself as holder of these names. Mr. Nunenthal is therefore the sole interlocutor for these names, whereas the third parties are not known by the AFNIC. Therefore, the AFNIC urges the concerned individuals or structures to contact Mr. Laurent Nunenthal and ask him to organize as soon as possible th transfer of their domain names a new holder, respectful of the .fr naming Charter, which is the sole condition for making a domain name available again.

 

[FreddyS]

Our official statement:

All “.fr” Domain Name Holders are in Danger!

AFNIC, the French national Registry has taken the unprecedented step of freezing thousands of ‘.fr’ Domain names. This action, taken without warning or explanation, has terminated access to the related websites and e-mail services, causing chaos and disruption to organizations around the world.
The impact of such actions on Internet and E-mails services on which so many businesses rely worldwide could be disastrous if it were to be followed by other Registrars.
The whole dispute review and resolution procedures have been established across the industry to avoid this sort of event. AFNIC have ignored these established procedures, even though they are incorporated in their own Charter.
When challenged by EuroDNS, an accredited AFNIC Registrar based in Luxembourg, whose Domain names were affected by this action, AFNIC claimed that EuroDNS’s agent, Laurent Nunenthal had not respected AFNIC’s Charter, but failed to explain the basis for their complaint.
Laurent Nunenthal, who is listed in AFNIC’s "WHOIS" database as the holder of more than 4000 ‘.fr’ domain names, is not a speculator, but is quite simply the agent of hundreds of foreign customers who wish to hold an ‘.fr’ domain name.
EuroDNS is a well-established Registrar, accredited in many countries. The company records and protects domain names in more than 22 European countries, for both EU and worldwide customers. The company’s services are highly valued around the world.
EuroDNS has always maintained complete transparency regarding the final holders of ‘.fr’ Domain names, as recommended by ICANN’s own Charter and that establishing AFNIC. See http://www.icann.org/registrars/wdrp.htm for further details. In addition, EuroDNS’s own website - www.eurodns.com - shows the name of the final holder of a given Domain name under the “WHOIS” heading.
It is important to remember that it is this end user customer who has the sole responsibility for the use of a given domain name, and not the Registrar.
AFNIC is one of the very few Registries around the world that aim to prohibit any non-French organization holding a second level Domain name such as ‘.fr’. This is contrary to the philosophy of the Internet, and in particular to European Community legislation which EuroDNS fully supports.
Many International Registrars, including most of the largest ones, criticize the approach and procedure adopted by AFNIC, encouraging us to maintain our rights.
EuroDNS will spare no effort in defending the interests of its customers, and will take all possible steps to correct this unacceptable situation.

Luxembourg, 28.10.2004.

 

[keyser]

Many TM infringements there :
http://www.afnic.fr/data/actu/public/2004/domaines-bloques-nunenthal-20041027.txt

So what did you expect ?
It is not really my business since I do not own any .fr names but Afnic took the right decision imo. Most of frozen domains will return after 3 months into your customers hands (1,500€ a minima being quite expensive) but they also have to be prepared to face many lawsuits within few years (when big corporations will realize that their corporate identity was reg'd only for speculating purposes).
Ie. :
- hewlettpackard.fr
- googl.fr...

 

[FreddyS]

For registered trademarks exists rules how to contact the AFNIC or the Registrar. There is an exact described way. I did not found in that rules "switch off all hosts".
What do you think about all that small or big companies that do not receive any more emails? Or all that online shops that are offline now.

 

[seeker]

regardless of the TM issues, as it is mentioned above, there are procedures on how to deal with TM disputes.
Many innocent customers are getting hit by this for no apparent reason.

Extremelly unprofessional by afnic

 

[FreddyS]

AFNIC wants to make the World believe EuroDNS is a Cyber Squatter

EuroDNS is present in more than 20 European countries and offers a unique gateway access to Top Level National Domain names (ccTLDs) around the world.

EuroDNS registers hundreds of domains daily on behalf of satisfied customers, at price levels acceptable to all.

As a result, EuroDNS actively contributes to making the Internet available to all.

EuroDNS has excellent working relations and collaboration with National Registries around the world, with the notable exception of AFNIC, the Registry responsible for managing the French Domain Name ".fr"

At the end of the working day on Friday October 22, AFNIC blocked more than 4,500 ".fr" domain names duly registered by our intermediary, without warning or discussion and in defiance to the most elementary rules of law. At the same time this action blocked all related services (e-mails, websites etc.) provided by the Domain Holders involved.

The pretext for this one-sided action was in contravention with the rules relating to Cyber squatting. While this may have been the case for a few of the Domain names involved, this involved a small number in relation to the number of domain names blocked by AFNIC.

EuroDNS has always condemned Cyber squatting, and has affirmed that it would be subject to court decisions from the administrative authorities responsibility for sanctioning Cyber squatting.

AFNIC organised a major publicity campaign in support of its tough action to provoke complaints regarding Cyber squatting to the French authorities. It then widely publicised its actions, accusing EuroDNS and their French agent of Cyber squatting, even though they were fully aware that this agent was simply an intermediary of our company.

In response to these many untrue accusations, EuroDNS maintains its position that the way to resolve such disputes is to make use of the existing Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (often referred to as the "UDRP"), especially created for this purpose.

AFNIC is the only Domain Name Registry in the world that appears to make its own decisions on the transfer, issuing or blocking of Domain Names, acting on its own as judge and jury in this conflict between a trademark and a duly registered domain name - in this case recorded by EuroDNS's intermediary.

AFNIC even went so far, on its own initiative and responsibility, as to cause certain holders of French trademarks to come to us to ask us to transfer to them domain names from domain name holders who have allegedly copied their trademarks. Such Domain Names had either not been recorded by our intermediary, or involved Domain Names that had never been registered and therefore do not exist!

Faced with this situation, EuroDNS does not intend to leave matters unchallenged.

As a result, the company has applied to the French authorities as well as to the European Institutions, to denounce AFNIC's practices, and to obtain compensation for the damage AFNIC's actions have caused.

EuroDNS has informed its customers of the situation, and wishes to thank all of those who have already expressed their sympathy and support in this conflict.

The EuroDNS Management team.
Luxembourg, 15.11.2004.

 

[mole]

Hey, you got to pay $300 bucks to adam for PRs like this.

 

[FreddyS]

Hey, you got to pay $300 bucks to adam for PRs like this.

If you want I will remove it again, but for us it is the easiest way to inform all our customers (and the customers of our customers) about it. We can not mail directly the owners of the domains because they where registered trough resellers in 2nd or 3rd line! That is the best way! Sorry if it disturbs you.

Regards,

Freddy
www.EuroDNS.com

 

[mole]

Sorry if it disturbs you.

Nah, euro. Just jibbing. It does seem like self promotion, and members here may not say it, but they know it.

 

[missedcall]

well....
a) IF THEY have a statement in their policy that says smt like "we may block ALL domains of a person due to TM issues on some of them"
then ..bad for u cause there are dn which obviously are TM's and there is nothing u can do BUT again this was the worst RESOLUTION could made cause they are blocking 100% legal services among the dn list

b) If they don't have such policy then its obvious that
AFNIC tried to fix any " possible violation" with a.........violation
They should check EACH domain seperately, WARN for each domain TM issues got complain for, and then follow any rules they have for resolution, again for each dn name...not the whole list ! If u go to court then 99% you will win for any "damages", keep non TM domains and loose all TM ones


whatever the case is, AFNIC's policy needs rewritting ..and thing twise before registering any tm dn in the future..

 

[FreddyS]

b) If they don't have such policy then its obvious that

Thats right, they do not have such strong policy. They want to protect their land and show that they are the boss.
And I would wonder if EuroDNS loose.

 

[FreddyS]

It is with much disappointment that I must note that the Court Decision of December 14 confirms the brutal and arbitrary blockage of the ‘.fr’ domain names registered on behalf of EuroDNS’s clients, at least for the moment. (see their press communication of 15/12 on their website (www.eurodns.com))

Your ‘.fr’ domain name will unfortunately remain blocked for the moment, but AFNIC have stated they consider remove this blockage on January 22, 2005.

If you wish to have your domain name(s) unblocked before then, there are two other options for you to consider.

1) If you own a French or European trademark (covering France), please provide eurodns with details – the reference number of the trademark, and whether it is a French or a European registration. Eurodns can then reactivate your domain name within 48 hours.

2) You have a French company willing to take over the Domain name under its own name (with all the risks that this involves). In this case send the details of this company to EuroDNS (name, addresses, fax, email address and ‘SIREN’ number). EuroDNS can then reactivate your domain name within 48 hours.

For all of you who do not have either a suitable trademark or access to French company, EuroDNS can only wait until January 22nd , 2005 when AFNIC have announced that they intend to reactivate your domain name.

Regards,

Freddy

 

[seeker]

If they could only manage their registry as well as they cook...

 

[YOYOYO]

does anyone know what happened with this..?

has anything been settled..?

this fellow laurent nunenthal just owns a whole lot of valuable .fr names

cars.fr - one I just came across

I realize he has some trademark problems too from what I read here

All his domains are still inactive from everything I see...

---------------------
later message

looking through his list of names posted on afnic

Most of these names appeared to have been generic words and phrases

a small percentage trademark problems, no doubt there were some significant ones, but to freeze all his names, is hard to believe

he had owned ringtones.fr at one, now someone else does

anyone know, was he able to keep any..?

 

[FreddyS]

laurent was trusty for those names, he was/is not really the owner.
not solved finally, names are still blocked. we still hope to clarify the situation with AFNIC.

 

[maxo]

I ordered .fr domain yesterday through EURODNS, wondering if it goes through.

Sad to hear what happened though, blocking domains without any warning does not sound promising if it was not stated in Terms and Conditions, but they are the Registry and can do whatever they want. Reminds me when people were banned from adsense.

 

[YOYOYO]

Freddy

Thanks for your reply

There are so many good generics still locked...

hard to believe they can't at least let those be used

do you know if there has ever been a decision or policy for genreic words with - www - in front of them made by afnic

he owns - wwwcredit.fr - did afnic openly oppose that that type of registration

in - .com - there is not one domain name of value that does not have an - www - version of the name registered, trademark or generic

-------------------------------

looking over the list 4500 domains originally spoken of, the overwhelming majority seem to me to be strictly generic and typos of generic

this guy seems to have been crucified for a very small number of trademark domains

it is really hard to believe...

 

[FreddyS]

I ordered .fr domain yesterday through EURODNS, wondering if it goes through.

Sad to hear what happened though, blocking domains without any warning does not sound promising if it was not stated in Terms and Conditions, but they are the Registry and can do whatever they want. Reminds me when people were banned from adsense.

EuroDNS is the 5th largest .fr Registrar, every one can order .fr names normally, you must only follow the rules of the registry: French Address, min 18 years, and what I realized is that they sometimes do not like foreign mobile phones.

Freddy

Thanks for your reply

There are so many good generics still locked...

hard to believe they can't at least let those be used

do you know if there has ever been a decision or policy for genreic words with - www - in front of them made by afnic

he owns - wwwcredit.fr - did afnic openly oppose that that type of registration

in - .com - there is not one domain name of value that does not have an - www - version of the name registered, trademark or generic

-------------------------------

looking over the list 4500 domains originally spoken of, the overwhelming majority seem to me to be strictly generic and typos of generic

this guy seems to have been crucified for a very small number of trademark domains

it is really hard to believe...

There must be some more treads in this forum where I discussed all those details, we where at the court in france and lost. those TM Typos cost a lot of money. I heard something that another domainer with a portfolio of 7000 names was blocked this month, I did not read it I heard it only, so I can not finally confirm it.

Is someone from here going to www.Domainermeeting.eu on 25th-27th July? There will be some .fr owner with nice portfolios.

 

[maxo]

There must be some more treads in this forum where I discussed all those details, we where at the court in france and lost. those TM Typos cost a lot of money.

Freddy, what do you mean with that you mentioned that TM typos cost a lot of money?

I assume the problem with Laurent was that he kept TM typo domains and generic ones in the same portfolio (Under the same name) with the help of which Afnic was able to track down all the domains he had and blocked them.