EURid Puts Over 73K .eu domains ON HOLD
EURid placed over 73K .eu domains on hold. The domains are believed to be related to the cyberwarehousing operation Ovidio Limited. Ovidio Limited has been registering thousands of generic keyword .eu domains since the landrush in April. Many of these domains are parked on SEDO. The WHOIS data for Ovidio Limited domains has an address in Cyprus.
The Ovidio Limited website claims that
“Ovidio Limited owns a portfolio of domain names and operates corresponding websites. Through these sites it offers product and service information to direct navigation and other customers. Ovidio Limited uses advanced proprietary techniques to identify appropriate domain names for its portfolio and seeks to avoid the registration of domain names in respect of which third parties may have conflicting prior rights.”
On 19/07/2006, the number of .eu domains with a Cyprus address was 85767. On 20/07/2006 the number of Cyprus registered .eu domains was 12188. The massive drop of 73579 domains could have been caused by the Ovidio Limited domains being put on hold by EURid. Checking a number of known Ovidiolimited.com domains on the EURid WHOIS showed that every one from a somewhat limited sample (due to EURid’s 100 query per day restriction) had an “ON HOLD” status.
Ovidio’s own .eu domain, Ovidio.eu also has an “ON HOLD” status. The address given for the registrant is: Ovidio Limited, 4 Pikioni Street, 3075 Limassol, Cyprus. Approximately 45K .eu domains potentially associated Ovidio Limited were detected in a recent .eu statistical survey carried out by WhoisIreland.com in June 2006.
Cyprus is relatively small in terms of a gTLD footprint. It has approximately 5000 associated com/net/org/biz/info domains. However the drop of some 73579 .eu domains within 24 hours seems to indicate that EURid might be taking action. The big question now is whether other bogus registrar operations, many run by US and Canadian firms via EU registered front companies, will be next. Or will EURid melt like a lump of Belgian choclate that’s been left in the sun too long and allow such massive cyberwarehousing and cybersquatting operations in .eu gTLD to persist?
Tags: IrishBlogs,.EU, Ovidio Limited, Ovidio, Domains, .eu Fiasco, Internet Statistics, Eurid, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on July 23rd, 2006 with 6 comments.
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