Stockpiling of .eu domains can't be stopped
Published: 09 Aug 2006 13:55 BST
... not adhere to that and we'd all wring our hands."
Wilde pointed out that thousands of Europeans had children who bore the same initials: "On a mathematical basis… you have probably about 20,000 people entitled to that domain for their child — which one do you give it to? [EURid] tried to start the playing field fairly, but after that it's not my job to say 'you're more entitled to this' or 'you are'."
He also claimed that he had been unable to acquire the three-letter domain for his own son, and had even tried to "buy a car registration for him but it was £25,000 pounds", adding: "I would like it but someone else has it. That's market forces".
EURid itself seems to agree with this standpoint. Representative Patrik Linden told ZDNet UK on Wednesday: "It should be possible for anyone to register domain names and as many as they like. If they find someone to pass the domain name to there's nothing we can do."
"We're not particularly fond of this, but it is allowed," he added.
In the lawsuit filed against hundreds of US registrars, EURid accused them of conspiring to set up three front companies in the UK and then registering tens of thousands of .eu domains in those companies' names, thus attempting to bypass EURid's rules on registrars stockpiling names for their own benefit.
That case and other complaints over allocations during the land-rush phase led a British Member of the European Parliament, Diana Wallis, to file a parliamentary question on the subject for the European Commission (EC). A response is due later this month.
A spokesperson for the EC told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that, as EURid was "an independent agency", the EC "does not have any supervisory role".
Although the EC was unable to comment on Wallis' question prior to the official answer being given, he added that there was a "set of rules under which EURid has to operate and we have to ensure this framework is observed".
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