Another Friendly Gesture from the EU
I saw this new diktat coming ages ago because it is in the small print of the license that .eu registrants must be resident in the EU or have a physical EU business presence (something like that). Surprised people are shocked by it.
As to why people bought them I can answer from a web developer's perspective. The .eu ccTLD has been offered at basement prices frequently by registrars. Some of us developers registered them simply because they were cheap when registered and useful to use as staging domains that would receive very very little traffic (.eu not being popular and all that). Similar story for .info and other TLDs. We can use sub domains and host files etc... but a cheap domain has its benefits.
Seeing this coming I disabled auto renewal of my .eu domains just before this ruling was pronounced. I really don't care about my .eu domains.
I do think it is a petty decision. I feel for those who invested in .eu domains and spent thousands or millions in traffic generation for their .eu domains but maybe they can sue the EU for damages. I'm sure there will be a regulation that allows the EU to be taken to court.
I won't be sad to see EU bureaucrats getting ramroded up in Brugge with one of their many flag poles. Their pettiness is beyond measure. The apparatus of the EU could do with some s**t cleaning.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
