News: 1591250715

This .eu policy is as daft as brexit itself.

'' The main beneficiary of the .eu registry business? The European Union itself. Only Brussels could invent a self-shooting gun. ''

Not sure how to interpret that statement.

Too many questions arise to type here w/ mouse on screen-keyboard, except

U$ ?

Actually, quite a few bureaucracies can invent self shooting guns. Case in point - US gun laws and the high levels of injuries at home.

Does anyone actually really want a .eu? I'd take one if I could register "fuck.eu" ("fuck yeuw"? geddit?). But then people would probably think I was a rabid brexiteer rather than just someone who likes to be mildly offensive for no reason.

Also, on an unrelated note – what's with theregister.co.uk being redirected to theregister.com now? Plans for world domination?

I have roughly 2000 contacts in Outlook. Of those there is just one with a .eu email address, but the company no longer exists.

There are two with .eu.com - not sure if that's covered.

The vast majority of .eu sites just redirect to a national domain, so no great loss there.

Interesting stat would be how many UK companies have a .eu address with no representation outside the UK - probably very few.

The numbers of UK-based .eu domains are surely better contextualised if the reader is told how many there are in total: is ~300k domains a drop in the .eu ocean, most of it, or about what you'd expect, given the sizes of the UK and the EU?

So, I went and searched for the appropriate number, and according to the latest EURid report, there are 3.7 million registered domain names in .eu, as of March 2019.

Roughly 300,000 is roughly 10% of the total, not quite a drop in the ocean. And the domain is more of a puddle. I've never really understood the need for .eu which I've always seen as an attempt to aggrandise the miniscule rather like van owners describing themselves as a logistics company (got a mate somewhere else in the country = logistics group, got a shed = logistics and warehousing, your mate's back in Poland = .eu) Try searching for Siemens.eu or Philips.eu

Of that 300,000 how many have no EU office? Most will probably still qualify.

I don't think that number for UK businesses is remotely accurate, the moment we were aware of this our .eu domains were changed to our office in the EU. Most multi national corps will have already done this.

Or is it already so?

And what happens to .ltd.uk and .plc.uk domain names when the registering company ceases to exist?

No, there are no restrictions on who can register a .co.uk or .org.uk domain name. The latter has a charter describing who *should* be using those domains, but it's never enforced.

Certainly should be; then it may stop some of the widespread abuse by organised crime based (and untouchable) overseas.

I wish this was the case with all country TLDs. Alas, too much effort and too much money to be made.

sorry, just had to do that... :P :)

and the point about brexit, is we can then do massive deals with australia, USA etc... :) :)

I doubt the deal with the U.S is going to be any where near as massive as advertised, first trade deals frequently fail to live up to the hype, and with Boris' red lines on agriculture and pharmaceuticals, it's unlikely the things he wants are going to be offered up without serious concessions. Lighthizer isn't exactly a push over either.

Like, say, the ones on the Irish border that have constantly been moving?

>I doubt the deal with the U.S is going to be any where near as massive as advertised

You're forgetting, Boris has already got legislation going through Parliament removing Parliamentary scrutiny of trade negotations and deals; permitting his government to sign whatever deals they like... So expect regardless of whatever is actually signed it will be advertised as a "Titanic success", as for those red lines they won't care - just as they don't care about Cummings being found out for breaching CoVid19 guidelines, staying at his parents in a building built without planning permission...

What an odd article.

We're joining the ranks of non-EU countries whose residents can't own .eu domains without good reason. No more, no less. This is what we wanted, isn't it?

It's what a sad, angry minority wanted, certainly.

"We're joining the ranks of non-EU countries whose residents can't own .eu domains without good reason. No more, no less. This is what we wanted, isn't it?"

This isnt about us, it is entirely about the EU doing something so monumentally stupid to hurt themselves. Think of the article as one about a stropy kid unhappy we dont want to play with them so they are slapping themselves.

Regardless of where you come down on the brexit debate the EU is cutting off a load of revenue and screwing its reputation by literally stealing (taking away a paid for service without compensation) for no good reason. It isnt the norm to cut off domains, maybe let them expire and not renew but not cut them off.

Hence this is nothing more than self harm for the sake of being stropy. Its of no consequence to the UK but does have direct and indirect consequence for the EU.

While I disapprove the move, you can't call it "literally stealing" as it was stated in the T&C's that domains could be revoked without compensation if the registrant no longer met the eligibility criteria.

@FrogsAndChips

"While I disapprove the move, you can't call it "literally stealing" as it was stated in the T&C's"

I guess on a technicality it isnt, that is fair to say. But by action they will be removing someones legal property without compensation and possibly not due to their action (I suspect those with EU addresses and care about it are pro-EU).

> they will be removing someones legal property

Read the T&C's you don't actually own the domain name...

As stated, the domain is restricted to EU member entities. No policy change. If they were in it for the money, this would not be the case.

It’s not the EU who has hurt itself, as is evident from where the squeals are emitted from.

@foo_bar_baz

"It’s not the EU who has hurt itself, as is evident from where the squeals are emitted from."

Yet again I will mention that this article is like an article about someone hitting themselves because we wont play with them. Yes there are squeals but likely in amusement or pity depending how much a person dislikes the EU.

And the EU keep our attention on this by repeatedly changing their minds on if they are going to hit themselves or not. It isnt the UK that gets money from EU domains and for the few who care its easy to get around, but it is the EU putting themselves in a very bad light as decision makers and competent ones.

For an article like this it doesnt matter if you are pro-EU or pro-Leave this is watching self harm.

This isn't monumentally stupid. It's just the rules for owning a .eu domain. Nothing debatably stupid's being "done" other than Brexit itself; this is just a totally normal consequence.

@Robert Grant

"This isn't monumentally stupid. It's just the rules for owning a .eu domain. Nothing debatably stupid's being "done" other than Brexit itself; this is just a totally normal consequence."

So a normal consequence of brexit is for the EU to tie their knickers in a knot over TLD's? Not only to break from the tradition of not messing with it but to be so indecisive about the issue by repeatedly changing their mind?

This is after making it look like a toddlers tantrum by declaring the removal initially so the EU TLD guys find out from the freaking news! So the very people in charge of the TLD turn around and say its nothing to do with them, its politicians and they didnt even bother to mention it?

The entire handling of this (non)issue has been monumentally stupid. If you consider that normal then we are absolutely in need of getting away from the EU pronto.

An "almost certain" no deal Brexit will be vastly more complicated to navigate for most businesses than a change of domain name. Not least, the issue that nobody, right up to ministerial level, has been willing to discuss with my consultancy is that some of the standard contractual clauses we're supposed to implement once the UK is a third country aren't actually GDPR compliant.

"Westminster, we could have a problem..."

Westminster, we could have a problem...

Don't make the mistake of thinking they care about that. If you fail to make the most of the brilliant new trading opportunities that they have generously laid before you, it will be your fault, gloomster.

"The main beneficiary of the .eu registry business? The European Union itself."

Money isn't everything. A difficult concept for UK, I know.

The whole concept of making sheadloads of money from internet domain names is wrong from the very start. Basically the registrars themselves are massive cyber-squatters that have take over something that isn't theirs in the first place.

Why register an .eu domain when you could have a .ninja domain? Ninjas are at least ten times more awesome than the EU which basically just brings to mind fusty banana-measuring cheese-eating beurocrats.

"even though the decision has already cut income to the registry and undermined its standing."

Maybe they have realised they already shot themselves in the foot and looking like incompetent fools wont change anyones opinion of them by changing their mind again. They are already taking damage for their self harm efforts, maybe they think it cant get any worse (I am sure they will find a way).

Oh - I really really thought for a moment you were talking about Brexit there, what with the talk of incompeent fools and shooting themselves in the foot.

But hey a 0.16% boost to GDP is worth way more than a 7% loss with a no-deal Brexit!

@AC

"Oh - I really really thought for a moment you were talking about Brexit there"

Then reading comprehension might not be your strong suit. Read the reg article then the comments section to avoid further confusion.

I somehow think that the EU registry will cope with the grievous loss of its UK registrants.

Money isn't everything, and sometimes it helps to have rules that are generally adhered to, isn't that right Dominic?

But when we think we are exceptional, obviously everyone else is to blame and/or a fool.

Who would have thought that leaving the EU would mean we no longer get the benefits of being an EU member?

Absolutely shocking!

If the latter, oh well one of the "costs" of not being under the control of Brussels is gone.

If the former, maybe it proves that some of those evil, lying Brexiteers might have had a point about the EU's taking things that don't belong to them.

Either way, I don't have an EU domain so I don't care.

"One year after that, on January 1, 2022, any withdrawn domains will be released for general registration, effectively making them available to anyone in the European Union."

In other words, the Brits too, once Brexit is finally cancelled.

Honestly, I can't remember when I encountered a .eu domain... I'm not even sure I encountered one beyond some EU institutional sites.

While I've necountered plenty .uk, .fr, .de, .se, .dk, .no, and even some .us sites.

who would want to keep a .eu if they can have the same name with their country tld ?