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

[Constantin S]

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

 

[NickB]

I'm not a lawyer, but as I understand it, foreign countries have immunity from US law so I think you're right - The United States probably has the same right to protection from civilian citizen from other countries

I was looking at it more closely and I think they tried claiming "commercial activity exception" through FSIA which was given short shrift......

https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/publications/2021/01/can-you-be-sued-under-fsia

Same I am not a lawyer and the wording does make my eyes glaze over a lot of the time but the final sentence sums it up

"In short, the Corporation has alleged no “expropriation” in violation of international law, and thus the expropriation exception to the FSIA also does not apply. "

All that time, money and effort down the drain - that's gotta hurt.....

 

[griff]

this is the thread that triggers me the most of all to be honest. it's a complete abuse of power, a scam & a reminder that we rent names and don't own them.

the only surprise was seeing that the one handing them over wasn't GoDaddy

 

[creataweb]

France = Thieves if this is all true.

 

[golan]

Crazy shit. Down with France (((

 

[WillW]

Yet another netsol saga. Who still uses them?

French People

 

[Galaxy Traveller]

Probably french foreign minister raised his childhood with thieves and thugs or he learnt from his near relative, elders that theft and snatching is best policy. Next, Brazil will claim amazon (Though I think Brazil will never try to theft and robbery or claim as France did).

Why it is theft and robbery? Because France has no jurisdiction and thus even French court order is invalid, void and null.

 

[BaileyUK]

It would be amazing if a 1994 registration of France.com was taken away from the original registrant. that's unless it was used in a misrepresentation of a French government or an authorised representative site.

a bit of digging should find out the answer

 

[AuctionBio]

Without WIPO decision it's not legit transfer of France.com, this domain was well developed and not used in bad faith, France tourism bureau have no chances to own it even in case of WIPO case. Owner of France.com must sue both France tourism bureau and Netsol and ask for compensation along with domain.

You are right,
I can smell something under the cover from NS

 

[Galaxy Traveller]

The guy who lost the domain has a live US trademark on it - just search france.com at http://tmsearch.uspto.gov

How can Netsol be the one to decide that a foreign trademark trumps an established domestic one?

Every experienced pros here already expressed their concerns about web.com as far as I remember, experienced members voiced their concern about NS every time whenever they discovered a domain registered with NS.

 

[offthehandle]

What is strange here is that a US registrar would recognize the French jurisdiction.

Don’t want to derail this off topic, but that’s what I mentioned to you about GDRP before, remember? You answered and mentioned privacy is a basic right and I agree with you. However, why in a few weeks should EU privacy laws must be complied with worldwide? Its jurisdiction is EU. Sure Whois is published worldwide, I get it for EU registrants, but I have been reading about GDRP compliant websites are required. So is this a new trend? Why would the EU now have some jurisdiction to fine non EU private websites worldwide? This France.com jurisdiction in the U.S. seems NetSol must have offices or are registered in France to do business.

 

[DNWon]

That's it, I'm throwing out all of my Grey Goose bottles... once they're empty!

 

[-AR-]

I found a link to a letter from lawyers for the French State:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4446110-Notification-20letter-20domain-20name-20-France.html
Source: korben.info

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.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

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

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

French people think they own the world

 

[Galaxy Traveller]

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.

 

[Galaxy Traveller]

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.

 

[domainscot]

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

 

[domainscot]

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.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

It would be interesting to see how much tourism and business this guy sent TO France. Hope this gets reversed.

 

[offthehandle]

In this case, Parvi.org, the Registrant won, and a judgement of $100,000 against city of Paris, France was awarded. Attorneys fees of 26,830.00 were included. Does anyone know if the Plaintiff collected? ( more details above on DNW)

http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/amc/en/docs/parvi-order.pdf

 

[mr-x]

France owns an entire TLD in .fr.. horrible precedent.

Does this mean America can seize America.com at any moment, or Canada can seize Canada.com, etc.?

Fork up a couple M's and call it good... or use your own TLD if the owner refuses to sell.

Hope this is resolved accordingly.

At least with a .com, the owner can use American not French courts.

 

[Kate]

And while they are it, why not go after the .net and .org and other extensions ?
Ironically, both the .net and .org are for sale, while the .com was developed and offering bona fide services.

 

[erwin.groen]

What is difficult to comprehend is that the domain in dispute is already being forwarded and used!, It’s email(s) potentially being forwarded/intercepted..

This domain needs to be frozen, icann landing page implemented or similar, notifying people of what’s happening.

Why can’t registries around the world adhere to a common law rule by icann forcing each registrar to force its name servers to be changed until proceedings have finished..

 

[erwin.groen]

Good point, I hope you don't have a map of France emoji Erwin?

If I did, it’d be flying at half mast

 

[Dansdomainarbitrage]

To sue your own country that is like a movie.