Gandi Bar - Gandi US

Gandi Supports CFAA Reform – the right way

Thomas — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:24:00 -0700

Some of you are aware that Gandi supports many non-profit organizations and philanthropic associations with free or discounted hosting and/or domains. Often we choose who to support based on the mission of the organization, and whether that mission aligns with the needs and interests of our community: the community of Internet innovators, of which we are proud to be members. Every so often the interests of our community need more than just support. They need to be defended from attack by narrower interests, and so today Gandi is participating in a campaign with the EFF, CDT and others to help create a meaningful improvement in a dangerously broad law in the USA: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

Some of you are aware that Gandi supports many non-profit organizations and philanthropic associations with free or discounted hosting and/or domains. Often we choose who to support based on the mission of the organization, and whether that mission aligns with the needs and interests of our community: the community of Internet innovators, of which we are proud to be members.

Every so often the interests of our community need more than just support. They need to be defended from attack by narrower interests. Just as we did when we opposed SOPA, today Gandi is taking part in a campaign with the EFF, CDT and others to help create a meaningful improvement in a dangerously broad law in the USA: The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

You may be familiar with the tragic case of Aaron Swartz, who took his own life on January 11, after being threatened with outrageous penalties under the CFAA for his alleged actions in downloading academic articles. Aaron Swartz’s suicide raises serious questions about the way the law was applied, and the way it is written, which severely criminalizes common actions and blunders many of us make online, often unintentionally.

Interpretations of the current law by prosecutors must be reined in, and the law has to be targeted to stopping those who harm the interests of law-abiding public citizens. It should not be a tool for law enforcement to retaliate against activists who (whether you agree with what they do or not) act in good faith for the common good. We know there are plenty of real criminals out there, so lets help Congress make a law that works for everyone.

So far, the proposed changes are taking us in the wrong direction, and making the law broader and the penalties even more draconian.

Gandi, and the Internet Infrastructure Coalition that Gandi helped to found, have already signed a letter to congress in support of CFAA reform, and made it part of our lobbying efforts. The EFF, who Gandi supports, has put up an action campaign. Aaron Swartz’s advocacy organization, Demand Progress, has called for a week of action starting April 8, to lobby for positive changes to CFAA. The Center for Democracy and Technology has sent another letter to Congress calling for this reform, and has the support of many advocacy groups. Representative Zoe Loftgren has proposed a bill known as Aaron’s law, that would take a step in the right direction.

If you agree that we need to reform CFAA the right way, join us in supporting this reform. Contact your congressional representative, and do your part to keep the Internet safe, free, and open. That’s the only way it will continue to enable innovation such as that our community creates.

The i2Coalition is acting for the good of the Internet

Thomas — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:18:00 -0800

Working on anti-SOPA legislation, Gandi is helping the i2Coalition to influence public policy on the Internet.

I was encouraged to read Christian Dawson’s latest blog about the i2Coalition attending the ICANN meeting in Toronto last month, and the work that the coalition is doing to internationalize the work done by the coalition. Gandi is a founding member of the i2C, and some of that work has fallen to me. It struck me that the coalition represents a new political shift, and that we all need to be aware of and participate in that shift, if the freedom of information we enjoy on the Internet is to survive.

I’ve been working on the public policy committee, reviewing upcoming legislation from Rep. Loftgren on safeguarding the things about the Internet we value the most: the free flow of information, commerce, of course, and the protection of individual privacy. It’s clear that this legislation is needed, as public policy to date has been largely about restricting information flow. Most of what I have to say about the legislation is that it does not go far enough to ensure its goals are met, though it is a good start.

The public policy of China or Russia with regard to the Internet is mostly about control and restrictions. The USA has not done this (yet), but the actions of RIAA have been about controlling content with legal action. Regardless of how you feel about copyrights, it seems clear that unless we have an informed and insightful body of law to protect the information flow we all enjoy and rely on, the only actors in forming policy will be those that are concerned with denying access to that flow of information.

Or at least making us pay for it, which for a large part of the world means the same thing.

The successful actions against SOPA/PIPA early this year by a few insightful companies and individuals has led to Washington acknowledging a new political reality: the Internet is a critical piece of the economy. Without the free flow of information it enables, much of today’s commerce would stop, and people worldwide would lose access to information that they need to run their lives, make decisions, and stay in touch with family and colleagues.
It is companies like Gandi and the other i2C members who make the Internet work, and we now have a measure of political power in that position. It’s up to us to use that power responsibly, productively, fairly, and for the right causes.

We are doing just that.

Gandi's Opposition to the SOPA Legislation

Thomas — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:02:00 -0800

Several of our customers have asked us what our official position is in regard to the controversial SOPA legislation. We oppose it. These are our reasons.

Our position at Gandi is that censorship is generally a bad thing. So is piracy, and both need to be fought, but they must be fought by means that both assure accountability and the protection of private data. We support the free flow of Information, since we believe the only way a society can truly be free is when all of it's citizens can know the truth.

Governments need to keep secrets, and companies need to have their intellectual property protected. On this point, we agree with the goals of anti-piracy efforts, both technical and legislative. This goal can only be accomplished, however, with respect for the rule of law and by implementing fair use and due process. These are proven ways to prevent abuse of power.

SOPA presents a challenge to those charged with policing the respect of intellectual property protections, in that it is, at best, vaguely written, and it appears to roll back many of the due process safeguards and safeguards for free speech that US citizens, and those of many other countries, enjoy and have come to expect on the Internet.

SOPA also stocks the armories of law enforcement (in this case, the US attorney general) with a huge pile of anti-piracy virtual weaponry, which is largely indistinguishable from censorship weaponry, such as blacklists and takedown powers. We do not think blacklists are the way to go. They can be abused far too easily by those with political agendas and competitive axes to grind.

SOPA does not seem to us at Gandi to be an ideal solution to the piracy problem. The debatable effectiveness of SOPA aside, it is never a good idea to allow authorities huge powers of information control without also building in due process. SOPA has been criticized by many for removing due process, at least as it is currently written.

For these reasons, Gandi does not support SOPA. We encourage you to not support any business that does, and we welcome your comments and opinions.

U.S. Data Center Open for Business!

marc — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:45:00 -0500

We're excited to announce that our US Team & Data Center are open for business, and ready to host YOU!
You can now choose to create your new server in either Paris or Baltimore. Either location will give you the same great Gandi service you expect, in a manner that's cost effective, scalable, efficient and reliable! This is the way cloud computing should be. And it's all about you -

Your Domain
Every domain at Gandi gets full customer support, full DNS control, 5 email mailboxes, gobs of aliases, and privacy protection. While you may find cheaper domains on the market, you won't find one that includes all this. It's also part of our philosophy to sell domains at a reasonable price (not as loss leaders), so that you know we're not just trying to lure you in to sell you something else. We strive to be ethical in our dealings with you. We believe, unlike some providers, that you should have unrestricted access to managing your domain as it is more than just a name - it's YOUR online presence.

Your Cloud
Gandi's Cloud product is developed in house by our dedicated team, based upon powerful open source. Rather then just installing a canned VMware system like you typically get with other vendors, we have developed our hardware and software platforms specifically with support and reliability in mind. It's your service, and you can manage it freely using our web based interface, or via our API and your own tools. Add or remove resources as you need them, when you want them, automatically or by your hand. Pay only for what you use. Gandi Cloud is both elastic and scalable so you can centralize your computing resources and and access them from virtually anywhere.

Your Team
We have a dedicated US team based in Baltimore working to support our US Gandi customers and promote our ethical domain and cutting edge hosting services to new faces far and wide. We would be pleased to get your feedback on what you like about Gandi and what you think we could do better. And of course, tell us how you came to us in the first place! While support will continue to be offered from our multilingual team in Paris, the US team will ensure that you get the level of service you require and that we are on top of US specific issues.

Your Projects
Our popular Gandi Supports policy lends it's support to notable projects in the US such as Creative Commons and The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Gandi Supports has the goal of helping businesses that share our vision for the internet to get started online. We want to put our money where our mouth is and help others achieve the same goals. Please contact us (direction at gandi.net) if you think you’d be a good US candidate for a Gandi Supports project, but make sure you read our pages first to see the kinds of business we support!

Regardless of your location, we'll be here for you, and we look forward to working with you all!

US Datacenter: Open beta now in progress!

marc — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 11:17:00 -0500

Yes! It's true - We are accepting requests for beta testers in the US Hosting center! To request a free 30 day beta test in the U.S. datacenter, go to http://en.gandi.net/hosting/trial/ and be sure to put the keyword Baltimore-Test in the description of your service. Each request will be processed individually, and chosen based on our specific testing requirements.

U.S. Datacenter In Beta Testing!

marc — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:58:00 -0500

We're nearly there! Many of you have been waiting a long time for this, and after many months of work, we're pleased to announce that the U.S. data center is about to launch in beta testing mode. We will start giving away shares beginning Monday, December 13th. We're accepting a limited number of beta testers to assist with testing prior to our official release, but you can already contact us to request a trial share.
We have a little bit of tweaking to do, and so it's not recommended that you place critical sites on these servers during the beta period. To request a free 30 day beta test in the U.S. datacenter, go to https://www.gandi.net/hosting/trial/ and be sure to put the keyword Baltimore-Test in the description of your service. Each request will be processed individually, and chosen based on our specific testing requirements.

We have currently planned for an official release date of December 20, 2010. Once the beta period is over and the datacenter is released for general use, you'll be able to choose the location of new servers that you create.

Want to win a free t-shirt? Of course you do! And this is the much coveted, high quality, black t-shirt with blue Gandi logo, replete with our "No Bullshit" logo! For the next couple of weeks, I'll be randomly selecting a follower of our Gandi.net US Facebook page to receive a free Gandi t-shirt. Just click the LIKE link at the bottom of this posting. That's all you need to do! Oh, there is a little bit of "fine print": Offer limited to the continental US only, and employees and previous winners are ineligible. Winners will be contacted via their Facebook account, and will need to provide a shipping address located within the continental U.S.

Gandi.net in the U.S!

marc — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:13:00 +0100

I'm pleased to announce that the Gandi US offices are up and running! We've been quite busy over the last nine months! It was only March of this year that Howard and I were sitting in Gandi's Paris office discussing how to make this a reality. Since then, we've built the US corporate structure, designed, provisioned, and deployed an entire data center, had an office designed and built, hired staff, trained and equipped them!

We've covered a lot of ground in a very short time, and are excited to finally be focusing on Gandi customers!

Our US offices are in Hunt Valley, Maryland, a vibrant business community in the suburbs. There are many tech companies here, and other sorts of industries are represented too. Among the most noticeable is the McCormick Spice Company, located across the street and seemingly always upwind! All manner of spice fragrances fill the air from time to time.

I've been working here in the offices since September, and I'm eager to realize the rollout of the US data center! This will enable you to have a US based server, and we're already handling some tech support out of the US.

Gandi has upgraded to Version 3.0.7 in support of the roll out. Some highlights include changes and improvements to the domain transfer process, an increase in the amount of RAM for servers, as well a recently announced DECREASE in RAM pricing, expanded IPv6 support, and a new Debian 64 bit OS release! Please see our recent posting for more details.

I'm excited to be able to be a part of the team bringing you an expanded Gandi presence in the United States. Gandi is full of dedicated people working to bring you excellent service all the time.

We've accomplished a lot, but still have plenty to do. If you have suggestions, or we're not meeting your needs, please let us know. We want to hear from you!

And watch this space for news!