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legal France seizes France.com from man who’s had it since ‘94, so he sues

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A French-born American has now sued his home country because, he claims, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has illegally seized a domain that he’s owned since 1994: France.com.

In the mid-1990s, Jean-Noël Frydman bought France.com from Web.com and set up a website to serve as a "digital kiosk" for Francophiles and Francophones in the United States.

For over 20 years, Frydman built up a business (also known as France.com)
Finally, on March 12, 2018, Web.com abruptly transferred ownership of the domain to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The company did so without any formal notification to Frydman and no compensation.

"I'm probably [one of Web.com's] oldest customers," Frydman told Ars.
Sources:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...com-from-man-whos-had-it-since-94-so-he-sues/
I also seen this on 1st page of Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/8frmzc/france_seizes_francecom_from_man_whos_had_it/

EDIT: I see people wondering who's crazy to use web.com/NetworkSolutions, this should answer your question: :)
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/networksolutions.com#trafficstats
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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The French people....

Did you know that you can’t list domains at Sedo with the term Paris ?
Even when this is a regular Name ... wtf
 
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A40F68E6-A945-4667-A76E-8532D72B4320.png
 
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French people think they own the world
 
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So ultimately Netsol did not want to risk paying $150 a day as a penalty to the French government to protect a clients asset which they were entrusted with. It must have been much easier to simply transfer the domain out to the French state.

Hi that letter says a French court ordered the company France.com (Inc) to transfer the domain to them - it does not say Netsol is ordered to transfer the domain. The penalty fee for not transferring it would be payable by the company France.com I think, not Netsol.
 
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this hot news! lets make it viral! :xf.laugh:

but I have feeling that france pay some money! and after receive money webs.com/netsol without thinking twice they just gave the domain to Ministry of Foreign Affairs! :xf.grin:

just 2 cents
 
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Uh..this is going to stink for domains that end in .CITY!! and I have more than my share :( Hope this gets reversed
 
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French people think they own the world
Not french people but some of their ministers and judicial system. I stunned how can a Judicial System of a developed country can be gone that stupid unjust and unfair. On the other hand I dont think even french people ever believe web.com again easily.
 
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Horrible precedence being set right there :(
Where have you been bro? Been a long while and I have not been seeing your post on facebook.

Hope good?
 
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With logic like that now France Court will seize all the French Toast and French Fries.

and the people whose name(s) is/are France are in real trouble. French ministers and judicial system going to seize, better watch out if any french official following you.

(Disclaimer: I found original comment from other source).
 
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Paris.com soon ?!

EiffelTower.com ?!
 
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Paris.com soon ?!

EiffelTower.com ?!
Someone will rename his city or country name Apple and his Banana Court will issue order to seize apple.com. It is that simple.
Someone commented, a brainwashed French believe they can seize or can do anything if it is for their public policy reason, even they can seize Tajmahal, Pyramid or Statue of Liberty, if it is public policy reason.
 
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Following a lawsuit first launched in 2015, the Paris Court of Appeals ruled that France.com was violating French trademark law, and said that the rightful owner of the domain was France's foreign ministry.

Mr Frydman said that Web.com subsequently gave the ministry control of France.com without formally notifying him, nor compensating him for the loss of property. This is scary! Web.com at it again.

https://news.sky.com/story/france-taken-to-court-after-seizing-francecom-web-domain-11353486

Think its totally crap that Web.com did not consult the owner of the domain and inform him what happening. Total bad show from Web.com
 
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Totally bad show from Web.com not communicating with owner of the domain. They should have informed the owner to let him know what was happening. What ever happened to that great customer service that USA is well respected for. Looks like Web.com is not sort company I would do business with.
 
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I saw this on reddit, and I feel like I was the only one who actually understood how horrible it was for him.

france.com is a multi-million dollar domain, and you wouldn't know that unless you were a domainer.

kinda messed up. but we don't know the whole story behind the laws he supposedly violated.


Its not just horrible for him its horible for every Geo domain owner from Country .coms, City .coms Town .coms region.com, This reminds me of Barcelona.com im sure the owner will win France.com back.
 
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Does a Paris Court have jurisdiction over the U.S.- based asset of a U.S resident? What is going on here?
 
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It would be interesting to see how much tourism and business this guy sent TO France. Hope this gets reversed.
 
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Here is the lawsuit from DNW in Pdf.
https://domainnamewire.com/wp-content/france-com.pdf

“Making matters worse, the transfer shifted the registration from Web.com to OVH, a French registrar that may be less responsive to US courts. (Web.com did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)”

Really seem it is complicated and expensive to fight. If he is represented on contingency then the name must be sold to pay his legal fees.

So, Web.com gave it to a French Registrar, this isn’t going to be an easy case with what I assume is jursidiction now transferred to the Government of France.

@xynames any input?

Correct me if If am wrong.

So say he wins in a US court? Then what? Web pays him his $10 reg fee? Seems to me, He must then take that judgement to argue it in France a second time, hire French Legal representation to retrieve the Name. Very, very expensive. Seems to me he should consult and hire simultaneously an Attorney in France now to file to represent him there.

This needs go to @Rick Schwartz website: http://hallofshame.com/
 
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Here is the lawsuit from DNW in Pdf.
https://domainnamewire.com/wp-content/france-com.pdf

“Making matters worse, the transfer shifted the registration from Web.com to OVH, a French registrar that may be less responsive to US courts. (Web.com did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)”

Really seem it is complicated and expensive to fight. If he is represented on contingency then the name must be sold to pay his legal fees.

So, Web.com gave it to a French Registrar, this isn’t going to be an easy case with what I assume is jursidiction now transferred to the Government of France.

@xynames any input?

Correct me if If am wrong.

So say he wins in a US court? Then what? Web pays him his $10 reg fee? Seems to me, He must then take that judgement to argue it in France a second time, hire French Legal representation to retrieve the Name. Very, very expensive. Seems to me he should consult and hire simultaneously an Attorney in France now to file to represent him there.

This needs go to @Rick Schwartz website: http://hallofshame.com/
It does not matter which registrar because VeriSign is issuing authority. Even US court can forcibly comply France to compensate. How? France must have some property in US. But who knows it will become another Nissan.com saga.
 
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@Galaxy Traveller Read this, did Paris pay up before? I wonder.

Thanks to Andrew Allemann’s DNW great blog here are some historical French hijacking cases before.

https://domainnamewire.com/2012/09/...o-pay-100k-for-reverse-domain-name-hijacking/

https://domainnamewire.com/2009/12/14/paris-war-on-u-s-domain-owners-coming-to-a-head/
The problem is when these people done anything wrong like theft, robbery etc. it is not easy to chase them. They usually (always) have (hot line) direct connection with important persons of almost any country when they require them.
 
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It does not matter which registrar because VeriSign is issuing authority. Even US court can forcibly comply France to compensate. How? France must have some property in US. But who knows it will become another Nissan.com saga.
yaa... when you have to force a COUNTRY's GOVERNMENT to do something, and you're another country's gov, it's kinda like starting a war, yes?

I get why Web.com did this. They didn't want to mess with a legit foreign power. It's like, "wow the country of France is asking for this domain. just give it just give it just give it justgiveit we don't need the PR mess. Let the domainers QQ, we make money off of their reggae every year anyway, just shave like $3 on the next promo and they'll forget this shit ever happened."
 
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yaa... when you have to force a COUNTRY's GOVERNMENT to do something, and you're another country's gov, it's kinda like starting a war, yes?

I get why Web.com did this. They didn't want to mess with a legit foreign power. It's like, "wow the country of France is asking for this domain. just give it just give it just give it justgiveit we don't need the PR mess. Let the domainers QQ, we make money off of their reggae every year anyway, just shave like $3 on the next promo and they'll forget this sh*t ever happened."
Just imagine if US seized some other countries domain, whole world will start noise and cry like baby how they are victim of a super power. Legit powers needs to know their responsibility also.
 
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