An American Man Is Suing France For Stealing The Domain ‘France.com’ From Him

Things between France and the US looked like they were going so well when the whole State of Liberty thing happened, but ever since then, it seems to have gone downhill. First, there were freedom fries and now some poor man is having his God-given right to own the top-level domain name France.com taken away from him by none other than the mischievous French.

The short version of this story is that at some point this year, men in berets and striped shirts smashed in the windows of Jean-Noel Frydman‘s with baguettes and took his website before riding off on their delightfully eccentric bicycles, smoking with glee.

The long version is that French-born American man Jean-Noel Frydman started the website France.com in 1994 as a guide to France for visitors from the US. In 2015, the French government began legal action to get the domain name into French hands, which was ultimately successful. Although not involved in the case, registrar Web.com accepted the decision and ceded ownership to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March this year.

According to the BBC, Frydman has launched his own lawsuit in a Virginia court against “the French Republic, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Atout France tourist agency and domain registrar Verisign“.

In his civil complaint, Frydman suggests that not only did the French government know all along that he had the website, but that they also frequently collaborated with him, recognising him as a “leader in the tourism industry“.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At PEDESTRIAN.TV, we independently choose and write about stuff we love and think you’ll froth too. We have affiliate partnerships so we might get a bit of money from any purchase you make based on our recs, cool? Cool. FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV