[cooperation-wg] EU TLD & Brexit

Yes, you are correct. I had meant to come back to this. 

I will limit myself primarily though to private individuals!

The old story was that it was all about residency. So anyone of any nationality who was resident in the EU could register a domain name.

The initial Brexit note then basically says that people in the UK will no longer fulfil the residency provisions and so they will lose their rights to EU domain names.

This would have had a perverse and adverse affect on all the EU nationals resident in the UK who happened to have chosen an EU domain name. That includes all the Irish.

However rules are rules and rules can be changed.

In parallel new rules were proposed that bring citizenship into the mix. So EU citizens anywhere can now register a domain name.

So the German in Australia and the Australian in Germany, the Italian in the UK and the Brit in Italy, and all the rest are all OK.

Given the overall direction of the changes though the losers will be UK citizens, and of course non-EU citizens, who are resident in the UK. Except for those who realise they are also Irish? I guess a few in Northern Ireland might take that view for obvious and pragmatic reasons.

However we are in negotiations and so maybe if enough informed people actually said something the rules could be changed even more.

Personally I have no problems with UK citizens not being able to register EU domain names after Brexit. Brexit means Brexit? I do have a problem with UK citizens who will be resident in the UK losing their EU domain name and any associated investment they have made. I don’t know how many non-EU citizens may be involved.

However I still have various questions. 

I am not clear how well all the 700+ registrars worldwide have been enforcing the current residency requirements after initial registration. I presume some people on this list have a feel for that.

The Commission text says that EurID will be “entitled" to revoke names. Does that mean it is up to EurID?

I don’t know what the current UK-based registrant mix looks like. Proportion of organisations registered in the UK? Proportion of UK citizens? Proportion of non-EU citizens? Proportion of residual EU citizens? I am not sure if even EurID knows this. And maybe with the GDPR it may not be the time for them to ask for more personal data.

And what happens to all the forfeited domain names?

For some people this story is just starting. I share your concerns.

But if anyone sees a bit i got wrong in the above I would be very happy to be corrected! I feel a Venn diagram might have been helpful.

Gordon

> On 1 May 2018, at 17:22, Michele Neylon - Blacknight <michele at blacknight.com> wrote:
> 
> Gordon / Nick
> 
> The Commission has not backtracked - the Register article is incorrect
> 
> See the official sources below:
> 
> http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEX-18-3583_en.htm
> 
> The draft Regulation is available at:
> 
> https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/com-2018-231_en
> 
> The new proposals are completely unrelated to Brexit and stem from an ongoing review of .eu that the Commission kicked off over a year ago. 
> 
> Under the new proposed regime the registration criteria would be expanded beyond residents of the EU to encompass EU citizens regardless of location. No details have been provided on how they foresee that working and based on my experience as a registrar I have serious concerns about how that will work in reality
> While the new policy will help EU citizens who are resident in the UK (and elsewhere) it's not going to undo the EC's bizarre approach to dealing with the 300k+ .eu registrants in the UK, which also includes Northern Ireland.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Michele
> 
> --
> Mr Michele Neylon
> Blacknight Solutions
> Hosting, Colocation & Domains
> https://www.blacknight.com/
> http://blacknight.blog/
> Intl. +353 (0) 59  9183072
> Direct Dial: +353 (0)59 9183090
> Personal blog: https://michele.blog/
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