European Commission Says It Will Cancel All 300,000 UK-Owned .EU Domains (theregister.co.uk)

Brexit has hit the internet, and not in a good way. From a report: In an official statement Thursday, the European Commission announced it will cancel all 300,000 domains under the .eu top-level domain that have a UK registrant, following Britain's eventual departure from the European Union. "As of the withdrawal date, undertakings and organizations that are established in the United Kingdom but not in the EU and natural persons who reside in the United Kingdom will no longer be eligible to register .eu domain names," the document states, adding, "or if they are .eu registrants, to renew .eu domain names registered before the withdrawal date." Going even further, the EC suggested that existing .eu domains might be cancelled the moment Brexit happens -- expected to be 366 days from now -- with no right of appeal.

Comments

Petty.

[MachineShedFred]

Is it just me, or does this seem fairly petty and petulant? Yeah, sure, the UK won't be in the Eurozone any more, but all you're doing is (in the best case) generating revenue by making all those domain owners re-register with addresses in continental Europe, and inviting a land rush for speculators and scammers in the worst case.

Seems pretty stupid.

Re:Petty.

[Joce640k]

Rules is rules.

They voted to leave, they've got nothing coming.

Re:Petty.

[Joce640k]

it takes a lot to move an entire nation to agree in the polls against the push of popular media even.

...says somebody from the country that voted Donald Trump as president.

What both the Brexit and Trump votes have proved is that there's a whole bunch of small-minded, Xenophobic people out there if you give them a chance to vote.

Re:Petty.

[Hylandr]

I would normally mod this down as a troll but I am going to feed it instead:

What the Brexit and Trump votes proved is more people that don't buy the media's bullshit voted than those that do believe the bullshit.

And honestly, anyone that thinks they are better than anyone else for any reason are the problem here. Accusations aren't evidence, calling people xenophobic, racist, small minded etc doesn't make them so. It just makes them ( rightfully ) not like you, your cause, or your candidate.

It had nothing to do about gender, race etc. It had to do with the candidate was utterly reprehensible in her conduct and track record. As exemplified by the meltdown of her constituency afterward. Based on that fact alone we know we dodged a bullet. The media has been bordering on treason in it's 'reporting' of Trump and his activities.

Who voted to what?

[SuperKendall]

Not all of the people in the UK voted to leave. But way to make them realize they should have, by childishly having an un-elected shadow government steal a bunch of domains.

This action makes me think less of the EU, which I had thought was impossible.

Re:Who voted to what?

[thaylin]

your country voted to leave, it is something you should h ave seen coming, as you will no longer be legally eligible for the domain, trying to have your cake and eat it too so to speak

Re:Who voted to what?

[gravewax]

".EU is the domain extension for the country code EU. It is a ccTLD (country code top level domain) for the European Union. It's open to organisations or residents that reside in the EU member states". The UK is leaving the EU, why should organisations and regulations change in the EU to accommodate the UK?

Re:Who voted to what?

[SuperKendall]

The current domain holders should be grandfathered in to allow ownership of domains already purchased.

Otherwise, in the same vein of thought, why should EU visa holders continue to be able to work in the UK? UK is allowing for that, any two reasonable organizations would reach some accommodation.

But as we've seen, the EU is far from reasonable or adult.

Re:Who voted to what?

[AmiMoJo]

The EU TLD is for sites based in the EU. The idea is to give EU citizens confidence that it is an EU site operating under EU rules on things like privacy.

Since the point of brexit is supposed to be ditching those rules and leaving the EU, it makes no sense to allow UK entities to have EU domains.

If the UK wants to negotiate access and agrees to abide by the rules, fine. But the UK doesn't want that. Agreeing to the rules is one of the government's red lines, although so far they have not meant much.

Re:Who voted to what?

[serviscope_minor]

What kind of fucking moron cares about the "EU's best interest?"

Well, the extant members of the EU for one.

If you don't like the rules of a club and decide to leave and stop paying your fees, you can't really complain when you can't use the gym any more. Or the pool. and the sauna's off limits too. Yep and the sports massage even though you had to pay extra for it.

Oh and you also don't get the affiliate discounts at the loca supermarket either.

SERIOUSLY HOW THE FUCK IS THAT A SURPRISE TO ANYONE???

"we" (ha!) voted to leave, now the people who voted to do so are throwing a total shit fit about not getting al the cool shit we got as members. .eu domains are for members of the EU, end of. Not members and random whiny hangers on. Just members.

Re: Who voted to what?

[serviscope_minor]

So they got a lot of the headaches of being in the EU, while missing a lot of the benefits.

No bollocks to that. We benefitted pheomenally from being in the EU.

it is also to the benefit of the people of the EU to make an example of Britain, to make it as painful as possible for them, to discourage anyone else from leaving, because every time any country leaves, all the other countries are worse off.

They're not even doing that. There's no need to do that. Just letting us leave, and by leave, I mean you know leave where we don't get all the stuff we had before---just letting us leave is more than bad enough.

they don't need to make an example of; we're making a fine example of ourselves without any assistance.

Re:Who voted to what?

[alex3772]

.eu domains are for members of the EU, end of. Not members and random whiny hangers on. Just members.

Actually that is not entirely correct. .eu domains are also usable by residents/entities in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. However these countries are EFTA members and abide by the rules of the EU.

Re:Who voted to what?

[serviscope_minor]

The current domain holders should be grandfathered

Oh they should, should they?

Why? The rules specifically state that owners must be in the EU (plus Norway etc).

It was an obvious consequence of Brexit that we would lose access to this. Because it's in the fucking rules of the registrar which are public.

Getting pissy because you didn't bother to figure out what actually leaving meant before voting leave isn't going to help. If you voted against your own interests out of ignorance and stupidity it's not the EU's fault or their job to fix it for you, especially when you're determined not to lift a finger to fix it for yourself.

That's you in the general sense, not you specifically since IIRC you are in fact American.

Re:Who voted to what?

[gravewax]

The UK doesn't get to get the advantages of leaving the EU and the advantages of staying, why would any country stay when they can just move out yet keep all the benefits. The reality is part of leaving the EU is leaving behind all the EU regulations and rules AND all the EU benefits. you can't be just a little bit pregnant here.

Re:Who voted to what?

[Anonymous Coward]

TLD rules are not law and these 300,000 domain holders will just have to get a PO box in Brussels the same way every major corporation does to prevent scammers and domain squatters.

The real losers here are EU residents that will go to the same .eu domains they always have, be scammed or have cryptomalware installed via drive by download, and the press in the EU will naturally blame Brexit instead of where bad bureaucratic decisions often lie: the EC. That same body which made other myopic decisions causing Brexit to gain steam in the first place.

Re: Who voted to what?

[jeremyp]

You ask the Greeks how beneficial the Euro is.

In reality, for British people who visit the continent regularly, it's no big deal. You just keep a few Euros in your wallet at all times. Also, Europe has credit cards just like Britain so you don't even need masses of cash.

If you want to go from Paris to London, you need to be at Gare Du Nord 45 minutes before your train leaves and the main reason for that is not the passport checks but the security screening.

Seriously, you should get a clue what you are talking about. The things you are talking about are minor irritants in comparison to things like lots of companies relocating out of the UK, losing access to the single market, losing access to the European science programmes, losing access to Europol, restrictions on free movement of people, having twenty seven more enemies.

Re:Who voted to what?

[hazardPPP]

What kind of fucking moron cares about the "EU's best interest?" The EU ostensibly exists for the convenience of its members states, and those states exist for the convenience and welfare of their citizens.

The "EU's best interest" is shorthand here for the "best interest of its member states" i.e. "the best interest of the citizens of the EU member states".

This is what UK Leavers don't get - that in the other 27 EU states, people don't generally hate the EU and don't want to get out, and feel that they have a common interest to defend. This is demonstrated by the EU27 maintaining a common front in the Brexit talks, whereas the UK side thought it would be easy to play them against one another to get a good deal for the UK.

Re:Who voted to what?

[Freischutz]

Brexiteers assume all rules were designed to punish the UK. Even the ones we wrote, like Article 50, are just an EU plot to frustrate Brexit.

It's not just ccTLDs either. Today the EU confirmed that we would lose access to the Galileo satellite navigation system. We could negotiate access to some service/manufacturing contacts, but all secrets like military decryption keys would be off limits. As any sensible person would expect.

The EU does not have to punish the UK for leaving, Brexit is a completely self-punishing exercise. Still, it amuses me how the Brexiteers manage to cast every consequence of Brexit as unfair punishment, persecution and dispossession. Just changing the context a bit brings out their irrational entitlement complexes: I'm leaving the golf club and now I'm no longer allowed to make use of club discounts, UNFAIR!!! I'm leaving the golf club and now I'm no longer allowed to get free golf lessons, PUNISHMENT!!! I'm leaving the golf club and now I'm no longer allowed to play their courses for free, BULLYING!! Now for most of us these would be natural and normal consequences of leaving the golf club, to a Brexiteer these are violations of his/her fundamental human rights. The average Brexiteers attitude can be summed up in three words: .... BWAAAAAAH!!! ... BABY WANT!!!

There are already benefits

[SuperKendall]

One hard benefit the UK is receiving is not having to pay the EU membership fee - savings of around 8.5 billion pounds.

Not sure what other promises you think are being "walked back". Not having to be members in a government that would pull such a petty stunt seems like a huge win. You are who you partner with, after all...

Re:.su still exists (Re:Petty.)

[serviscope_minor]

This looks more like spouses divorcing and threatening each other's items out of sheer spite.

Why don't people understand? We are LEAVING. We chose to leave (for some reason). that means we don't get any of the stuff any more.

That's what fucking leaving means.

Re:This is spite.

[serviscope_minor]

This is nothing other than spite.

Yes it's spite for them to stick to the rules that we agreed to abide by.

fucking bastards.

It's not uncommon to register a domain in a country other than the one you live in.

Except it's in the rules of the eu domains that you can't have one if you're not in the EU.

For fucks sake, it's not spite for them to stop letting us use the EU facilities when we leave ans stop paying membership fees.

Re:.su still exists (Re:Petty.)

[mi]

This controls, who may become an accredited Registrar. It has nothing to do with revoking an earlier-issued accreditation. Issued in good faith to a then-qualified organization.

The Registry may revoke a domain name at its own initiative and without submitting the dispute to any extrajudicial settlement of conflicts, exclusively on the following grounds:
    [....] (b) holder's non-fulfilment of the general eligibility criteria pursuant to Article 4(2)(b) of Regulation (EC) 733/2002;

This says may — it is up to the Registry. That it chooses to exercise this option is just that: petty and petulant.

I didn't say, it is illegal for them to do — I only disputed the assertion by gravewax, that they have to do it.