The .gr Domain Protest Site

Introduction

In the past the .gr domain was run on a first-come-first-served basis without any fees. The members of the Greek Internet community, understand that the management of the .gr domain root servers does not come for free, so we do not object to a scheme whereby owners of names in the .gr domain pay a reasonable annual fee for this service.

However, the powers that be at the National Telecom and Post Commission (EETT) have taken a very Draconian approach to the problem of the fair allocation of names to users.

The EETT has imposed a nine step process that has the following problems compared with the way domain names are handed out by other Top Level Domain Registrars (both national and international).

• It requires a lot of personal (and hence confidential) information and more importantly the documentation they require the applicant to submit (photocopy of ID or passport, utility bills or Tax statement) contain additional personal information. The contract the applicant must sign has a number of loopholes that allow this information to be retained by the registrar and possibly sold to third parties. It is important that the registrar's site has no link to a privacy statement.
• The process is clearly biased towards companies and against the private user by restricting the format of the domain names and by allowing private users only one name.
• The rules are chauvinistic, because they allow only Greek nationals to apply for names in the .gr domain. This rule does not apply to companies.
• The process is full of red tape for no apparent reason. Moreover, credit cards are not accepted and only payments through the National Bank of Greece are allowed. This discriminates against people in remote parts of Greece and those living abroad.

For these reasons we call upon all those people who are concerned about this state of affairs to write to EETT and the Data Protection Authority and let them know that you object to the way the .gr domain is managed.

Form letters (in Greek) may be found in this site as well as instructions for filling them in and posting them to the appropriate authorities.

• Instructions for filling-in the letters of complaint (in Greek).
• Complaint addressed to EETT (in Greek).
• Complaint addressed to Hellenic Data Protection Authority (in Greek).

Some Personal Remarks

Unfortunately in Greece people are inherently paranoid and consider any kind of criticism as a personal attack. I would like to emphasise that I have no problem with the people working at EETT or FORTH (the manager of the .gr domain) on a personal basis.

I do believe that they are guilty of arrogance in that they did not really seek the opinion of the Internet community while drafting their policies. They didn't even make an effort to contact existing users to inform them of their plans and ask their opinions.

I also do not believe in confrontation. I tried to settle the problem in private. I offered FORTH to pay the domain registration fees but refused to sign their standard contract and also to give them the personal information. They refused, and threatened to suspend my domain unless I complied with their requests. Since I do not wish to lose my domain name, by which I am personally known in Greece, I am forced to publicise the disagreement and ask for assistance.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Diomidi Spinelli (dspin@aegean.gr) for the "Free the GR Domain" logo, and for his many useful comments regarding the material. I would also like to thank Alexandro C. Couloumbi (alex@ozo.com) for making this complaint known to the Greek Internet (this guy really knows everybody :-).