GANDI

# Anti-Spam Position

```
*Gandi are white-hat for all domains, very proactive against abuse.*
*Also as they are in France they do not recognize US court orders to hand*
*over domains and so are a safe place to put domains out of the reach of*
*miscreants abusing US courts.*

Steve Linford

The Spamhaus Project
http://www.spamhaus.org

```

## Official Position

The following is from an entry by Ryan in their company's blog:

```
There are three main conditions that determine whether or not we take action against a domain:

1. **If the whois data is not fully accurate and verifiable.**
A major element of our ICANN accreditation is our obligation to provide the appropriate
registries with correct and up-to-date information concerning a domain's contacts and owner.
Our General Sales Conditions underlines this in section 3 and 16, where our customers agree
to provide reliable information as a prerequisite to using our services.

2. **If the customer uses our services for illegal, fraudulent, or prejudicial activity**
Domains registered with Gandi must be used in accordance with the rights of third parties
(copyrights, intellectual property rights, personality rights, etc.), and current applicable
laws and regulations.

For example, Gandi does not tolerate activity that is morally objectionable or that poses
a threat to public order, that spreads Computer Contaminants (Viruses, Trojans, etc.),
and/or that engages in fraudulent activity such as Identity Theft.

3. **Evidence of spamming activity**
We are very attentive to complaints involving unsolicited bulk email that originated from
one of our domains, and take quick action if the UBE complaint is justified...

```

## Actual Behavior

Complaints sent to abuse@gandi.net are acted upon immediately.

Gandi.net abuse investigators are regular readers of Internet newsgroups and forums that deal with Internet and e-mail abuse topics, so that they stay informed as to the latest techniques and operations.

## Blacklisted nameservers over 5-day period

Source: URIBL
<feed>http://rss.uribl.com/nic/GANDI.html</feed>

# Description of Gandi.net

## Gandi domain name registration

**GANDI SAS** is the largest domain name registrar in France, and provides additional services such as a blog and e-mail hosting. (see GANDI's webhosting report)

The name GANDI is an acronym for "*Gestion et Attribution des Noms de Domaine sur Internet*" (Management and assigning of domain names on the Internet). The reference to Gandhi is intentional, as the registrar is founded around an activist empowerment philosophy that is ethical and based on "Internet solidarity". Consequently, in addition to declaring war on spam, GANDI supports alternative projects, ranging from Spamhaus to Debian, and is involved in promoting and using Open Source software.

The following is an excerpt from their website:

```
Gandi is atypical in that we do not advertise in any way, nor do we resell our customers'
personal information. From the beginning, our success has been based solely on word-of-mouth
generated by our customers. We intend to continue this practice. In this vein, we believe that
"knowhow" is important, but our values are what make Gandi tick. The interest of our
customers always comes first since they will always be the origin of our success.

```

## Gandi web hosting

Gandi opened its web hosting service in January 2008 (http://www.gandi.net/hosting/). Its service provides virtual dedicated servers to its customers at a very low cost, which is possible in part due to the low price of bandwidth in France, and its personal ethics which is the democratization of the internet.

Abuse reports are acted on immediately, and in addition to being able to report abuses at several addresses, there is a 24/7 abuse hotline number where you can report any abuse of their services (see the contact section below)

Gandi's General Hosting Service Conditions (view) are very strict against any activity such as spamming, phishing, hacking etc. For example:

```
3.1. Obligation to respect our ethical standards and
the legality of Content

By accepting our contracts and using our services, you
agree to abide to our code of ethics which consists, in
particular, of protecting and respecting minors, human
dignity, public order and good moral standards, not
interfering with the rights of third parties (private life,
image, honor and reputation, trademarks, designs and
models, copyrights, etc.) or the security of persons,
property, the government, or the good working order of
public institutions, and to help in the fight against abusive
and/or deviant uses of the Internet (spamming, phishing,
hacking, etc.).

Furthermore, you guarantee that your use of our services
adheres to the following non-exhaustive conditions:

• Respects all local laws and legislation, in particular
those of France, and that said use shall only be for
strictly legal purposes
• Will not participate, directly or indirectly, in any
prejudicial, deviant, abusive and/or illegal practices
such as the use or attempted use of data that violates
the rights of third parties and/or laws or legislation,
and/or activities such as phishing, spamming, hacking
or any attempt to hack a computer system, or any
infringement mentioned in Articles 323-1 to 323-7 of
the French Penal Code

You agree and accept that you are explicitly prohibited
from using our services in order to participate, directly or
indirectly, in any way whatsoever, in:

Any activity or content of racist, xenophobic,
negationist, or pedophile character, or that is liable to
constitute or be associated with, either directly or
indirectly, child pornography or the trivialization of
such acts

• Any provocation, eulogy or encouragement to commit
crimes or offenses, and particularly crimes against
humanity
• Any eulogy or encouragement of racial hatred,
violence, suicide, or the use, production or distribution
of illegal substances, or acts of terrorism
• Insults, slander, violation or interference with the right
to privacy or the right to photograph persons, violation
of the personality rights of a third party or of Gandi
• Any attack or hacking of a third party’s computer
system, or the collection, processing, or illegal
transmission of data
• Access, in particular through hypertext, to a site whose
content is contrary to laws and legislation in force,
particularly those of France, or to these general
conditions
• Any propagation of computer contaminants, or hacking
activity of any sort whatsoever, whether it concern our
services, or our IT system, or any other service or
system linked to the Internet, regardless of the
technology and method used (for example, use of an
automated program).

Consequently, you shall refrain from making any such use
of our services, and you acknowledge that if Gandi is
informed and/or is made aware of the presence of any
such Content, the said violation of your commitments shall
constitute a serious breach of contract, which shall be lead
to he suspension or even cancellation of the service,
without prior notice, and without you being entitled to
claim any compensation from this act, and may be grounds
for your prosecution for the prejudice caused, and
application of the penalties mentioned in legislation in
force.

```

Note that in the contract, Gandi customers agree not to engage in illegal activities but also "**to help** in the fight against abusive and/or deviant uses of the Internet (spamming, phishing, hacking, etc.)."

# Where to send abuse complaints

Ryan from GANDI has specifically requested that complaints be sent to one of the following e-mail addresses in order of preference:

* abuse(at)gandi.net
* icann(at)gandi.net
* support-en(at)gandi.net

It is also possible to file a complaint for inaccurate whois information on their website. This will get results as well, though only after an obligatory 15-day waiting period. This is an automated process, and therefore it may be done along with a written complaint to one of the above addresses.

* http://rip.gandi.net

# Additional Contact Information

## Postal address

GANDI SAS

15 Place de la Nation

Paris, 75011

France

## Registration Information

Registered with the Paris RCS – French Trade Registry - under number 423 093 459.

Intracommunal VAT number FR81423093459

## Telephone and FAX

* Telephone: +33.(1)43.73.78.51
* 24/7 abuse hotline: +33.(0)6.31.15.28.60
* Fax: +33.(1)43.73.18.51

# Sources for this article

## Other

* ICANN Wiki
* Wikipedia
* The Gandi Bar
* www.gandi.net
* dotandco.net