Who owns your domain? Plug for Gandi

Posted Feb 1, 2007 19:14 UTC (Thu) by mikeraz (guest, #155)
Parent article: Who owns your domain?

When the issue of registrar choice flared up years ago I read reviews and made my choice based on the one rated highest for its EULA. That choice was gandi.net

These two paragraphs from their contract, which follow a segment of terms and definitions, illustrate their attitude.

1.
The Client owns the Domain Name registered. Gandi simply acts on the Client's behalf. Client acknowledges that Gandi services consist only of including in the shared Domain Names database, the Domain Name choosen by the Client, for the duration of the present contract and without prejudice, notably, that the Domain Name is available and that the Client respects terms and conditions of the present contract.

2.
The Client acknowledges to register and use the Domain Name in compliance
with the law and legal rights of a third party. The Client is the only entity liable for the use of Gandi registration services and the Domain Name. The Client looks after the editorial responsability for the Domain Name use. In this respect, he is responsible for consequences of any dispute related to the Domain Name, notably for any consequence from law or fact affecting the Domain Name and any trouble of law or fact caused to a third party during the Domain Name use.

Their EULA does include a statement about abuse and spam:

6.
About additionnal services provided by Gandi, the Client acknowledges not
to use them for unsolicited bulk emailing (``spam'') or any other
fraudulent/abusive use. Any abuse will make Gandi stop providing those
services to the domain name concerned.

They've always been a great registrar for me (read: no spam from them about services, always quick to reply to requests for information). I've stayed with them even as the dollar has declined in value against the Euro and consequently the price has risen.

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Who owns your domain? Plug for Gandi

Posted Feb 2, 2007 1:44 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link] (2 responses)

I don't get your point. These clauses, which are disclaimers of responsibility, illustrate the same attitude they all have: For what you pay us, you're not entitled to rely on us for anything.

It would surprise me if Godaddy doesn't have these same disclaimers in its contract.

I'd like to see a EULA that spells out one or two rights for the registree, for example, "Unless Client violates the rules above, Registrar will give 30 days notice before discontinuing the registration."

Who owns your domain? Plug for Gandi

Posted Feb 2, 2007 2:58 UTC (Fri) by IkeTo (subscriber, #2122) [Link] (1 responses)

I think what he means is that Gandi essentially says "if the domain owner do something illegal, I won't care, the domain owners are the only one to face the jurisdiction". In other words, they will not entertain any request from any third party. That third party must contact the domain owner directly if he has a complain.

Who owns your domain? Plug for Gandi

Posted Feb 4, 2007 18:06 UTC (Sun) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link]

I think what he means is that Gandi essentially says "if the domain owner do something illegal, I won't care, the domain owners are the only one to face the jurisdiction". In other words, they will not entertain any request from any third party. That third party must contact the domain owner directly if he has a complain.

I think so too, but if you read it carefully, that's not what Gandi says. Gandi says what they all say, including Godaddy: Gandi is not responsible to the customer for taking the blame if use of the domain harms someone. But Gandi is still free at its option to mess with the registration in order to prevent that harm, and this contract between Gandi and its customer definitely doesn't affect Gandi's responsibility to a third party for that harm.

Because this is standard one-sided CYA contract language, I don't think you can infer anything from it about Gandi's attitude toward requests like Myspace's.

Who owns your domain? Plug for Gandi

Posted Feb 9, 2007 8:46 UTC (Fri) by lacostej (guest, #2760) [Link]

I would note that gandi was initiated in part by Valentin Lacambre of altern.org who is known in France for having tried to stand up against corporations that tried to shut down his free hosting web site because one of the page members had posted scans of court-prohibited pictures.

In the end he lost and got to pay a fee.

Note that at that time, he offered 10M free space while the ISP and other usual services used to offer only 1M...

For those who can read french: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Lacambre
and http://www.journaldunet.com/itws/it_lacambre.shtml

Even though gandi was resold some years ago, I still believe the original spirit is there. That's why I still use them.