AFNIC had prevented with an amazing, offensive communication that on May 11 .Fr got into a new age: "rights of names" ending. Behind this harsh expression was hidden actually this other "French exception" responsible of the low volume of registering of .FR (after Polish .PL) with the name register conditions enough far of the principle " first that arrives, first in attention" in use in the majority other extensions in the world. It allows to well formed companies have an index about the commercial register, the INSEE base or also INPI that allow the registering of any dominion name (Pepsi France can register coca-cola.fr, for example) the French agent has given, for sure and finally, a proof on a certain opening! But, how do first results check this, with only 50.000 supplementary registers in 15 days after the opening? This is a long, long way to become .fr into an inevitable extension in France, at least in terms of a lot of registering!

The causes of disaffection of the .fr with French societies are manifolds. At first place , be fair, the time isn’t propitious, and this is right for the majority extensions: the "startups" time is over and the majority companies capitalize on their .Com obtained since almost 10 years for the most important ones. The .Fr has, of course, a very local importance, but so often companies prefer to go again, pure and simply, in direction to a.com and manage the user to a low-file in the site instead of create a contour name for each product (hhtp://fr.yahoo.com or www.apple.com/fr/ipod, for example). Apart from this, .fr "freedom" is still limited, and thus only the French companies are able to access and even, they must be properly directed over of well known datum bases recognized by AFNIC. Of course, these cover the majority of French companies but not in their totality. Finally, and over all .Fr grants a privilege to companies against to fellows. This was curious in the 90’s and it is more curious now, or the connection number explodes and/or the recent Internet Party proves that our countrymen were more and more "connected": it is a pity they have to direct towards .com for saying, or satisfy themselves with an inflexible and less glamorous "nom.fr"!

Of course, May 11 is a technical success: strong with its staff of 40 people, AFNIC has the human and financial resources to make the operation and they could be proud of the mailing European index and the "perfect" development of the registering. Lenders had understood very well, AFNIC had asked them its contribution and they had to adapted to a mechanism relatively complex. In this, the client applications index were worked in an asynchronous way, and for saying this more concretely with a 4 days difference in order to avoid an overcharged system. The first numbers announced were 50000 supplemental names. Was it worth while all of these efforts when you know that Denic German register could manage 600000 application of registered names about international dominion (IDNs) in the opening of this service? One thing is for sure: the opening, though it is a little slow, is marching on and this is an excellent new. People must wait until 2005, except for an opposite decision by the Management Counsel: Will the technical success on May, 11 be the understanding people more flexible?. You can want this more than AFNIC, after they controlled the Nomination Letter (see our previous editions), they consented on new systems about Lawsuit Resolutions. The first of them, CMAP was displayed in the beginning of May by the Arbitration Centre in Paris. It is innovator and permits the lawsuit solutions directly on line thanks to a "third informer", who gives an impartial judgment about a certain fact. Parts involved in this, can accept or not. This flexible and fast procedure (less than 16 days), must go, according to AFNIC, in the direction to "propitiate friendly regulations". UDRP, which is accepted by the majority extensions. It will be put into its place, but only "proximately".

JCV & SB