EURid
 | |
| Type: | Non-Profit |
| Industry: | Domain Names |
| Founded: | 2003 |
| Headquarters: | Park Station Woluwelaan 150, 1831 Diegem |
| Country: | Belgium |
| Website: | eurid.eu |
| Key People | |
| Marc Van Wesemael, General Manager | |
EURid (European Registry for Internet Domains) is a non-profit organization founded on April 8, 2003, by the three organizations operating the national registries for Belgium, Italy, and Sweden. The European Council (EU) appointed EURid to manage and operate the .eu top-level domain (TLD) under the principles of common interest, quality, efficiency, dependability and accessibility for the member countries of the European Union.[1]
EURid hosted the 38th ICANN International Meeting held in Brussels from June 20th to 25th, 2010.[2]
Background
The European Council began initiating the establishment of the .eu TLD in 1999. The Council delegated operational responsibility of .eu registry to EURid on May 2003; the actual service agreement, however, was not signed until October 2004. [3]
In March 2005, ICANN approved the application by EURid to include .eu in the DNS root zone.
On April 7, 2006, EURid officially opened general registration for .eu on a first-come-first-served basis. In the same year, the European Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) and the organizations operating the ccTLDs for the Czech Republic (CZ.NIC) and Slovenia (ARNES) joined EURid. The following year, the Business Europe Organization also decided to join EURid.
In December 2009, .eu introduced IDNs, and in June 2010, it implemented the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a protocol adding security to the DNS by preventing the interception and redirection of web traffic to fake websites.[4]
Founding Organizations
The three founding organizations of the EURid are the following:
- DNS Belgium - registry operator for Belgium's ccTLD (.be)[5]
- Istituto di Informatica e Telematica (IIT CNR) - registry operator for Italy's ccTLd (.it)[6]
- Stiftelsen för Internetinfrastruktur (IIS) - registry operator for Sweden's ccTLD (.se)[7]
Office Locations
EURid’s headquarters are located in Diegem, Belgium; this location also serves as the regional office for Western Europe. The organization has three other regional offices, which are located in Pisa, Italy; Prague, Czech Republic; and Stockholm, Sweden, and provide assistance to all registrars and customers using the respective regional languages.
Management
The European Commission in charge of EURid, and ensures that the .eu registry is being managed and operated properly under the principles it was created with. The daily operations of EURid are supervised by an executive management team under the leadership of a Board of Directors.[8]
Management Team
- Marc Van Wesemael, General Manager
- Bart Foutrel, Finance Manager
- Peter Janssen, Technical Manager
- Brigitte Lagrou, Communications Manager
- Giovanni Seppia, External Relations Manager
- Geo Van Langenhove, Legal Manager
- Els Verstappen, Human Resources Manager
Board of Directors
- Pierre Verbaeten (DNS Belgium), Chairman
- Marko Bonac (ARNES)
- Danny Aerts (IIS)
- Domenico Laforenza (IIT CNR)
- Tomáš Maršálek (CZ.NIC)
A strategic committee (with not more than 10 members) composed of a representative from each member of the organization advises EURid. The committee conducts at least four meetings per year.[9] Other members include Philippe de Buck and Christopher Wilkinson.
Other Developments
In September, 2011, EURid finally won judgment on a large cybersquatting case that had been building for some time. The defendant was Buycool.com/Blogdo.com/Zheng Qingying, who registered 9,000 .eu domains despite the fact that they were cybersquatting the trademarks of prominent European businesses and that they were not even based in Europe, a stipulation of .eu registration, but instead based in China. They used a UK phone number and address to cheat the registry's verification systems. After EURid initially suspended the domains, the cybersquatter took the issue up in a Belgian court. They were found to have registered the domains in bad faith in September, 2010. The year long delay in releasing these domains was time allotted for appeals and notifications. The fact that the registrations were able to take place is symptomatic to some of EURid's poorly managed sunrise period, landrush period, and brand protection plans.[10]