Gandibar is the blog of Gandi, a French domain registrar, covering domains, DNSSEC, hosting, and its policy stances such as opposing SOPA.
HN commenters recommend Gandi as an expensive but excellent registrar with good support and no advertising, and cite its anti-SOPA stance.
>> Can I run a client from the Git repo and still use all of their infrastructure?
> Yes. You can.
The thing is, lucideer, the "restrictions" on the use of the source code are engineered to raise the barrier to independent use, notably by preventing or discouraging redistribution. This means that only those who are able and willing to compile Android source can run their own binaries. Everyone else has to go with the binaries they distribute which, as the other poster has correctly argued, cannot be independently verified.
> Do you have some personal issue with OWS?
I do not know about him. But I do. Please read on.
> and provided via F-Droid (though I have read their arguments against that w.r.t. performance)
Oh, so it's "performance" this time? It's not something about "updates" like last time¹, or "features", or "metrics"?
Do you really not think, if you go through the discussions, that there's just too many excuses? Does it make sense to you? Do you not get the feeling someone's got something to hide, if you would pardon the pun? :-)
But I tell you what really got in my tits, it was this message: (https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/53#issuecomment-7978065)
"Please do not install software from F-Droid. It is an unverified build, exceptionally out of date, and should be considered malware."
You know what? I fucking trust F-Droid. And I for one I am very grateful to everyone who collaborate to make that happen and stand firm in their…
From their blog:
> "For example, Gandi does not tolerate activity that is morally objectionable or that poses a threat to public order" [1]
From their domain registration terms:
> "Consequently, You commit Yourself to assuring that Our services are used in a licit manner and in conformity to Our Ethical standards" [2]
> "You commit Yourself to choosing and using Your domain name and Our services in a way that constantly respects the rights of third parties (intellectual property laws, personality rights, image rights, and the respect of private life, trademarks, etc.)"
From their general conditions of service:
> "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 infringing on 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, cracking, or attempts at hacking or cracking), or any other infraction as cited in the Penal Code." [3]
So Gandi reserves the right to revoke your domain name if it determines you violate one of their "good moral standards", or anyone makes any copyright claim against you. They essentially gave…
I've used Network Solutions, NameCheap, Gandi, and a handful of specific ccTLD registrars. I never had any problems with any of them and I wouldn't worry about what you chose too much.
That being said, I like using Gandi knowing they support (financially or otherwise) many amazing open source projects and organizations. Those that stand out to me include Debian, EFF, and CC, but I recommend you take a look at the full list[0] on their website. They also take a strong stance against SOPA[1] (and clones) and prominently display their no bullshit stance[2] on their website and merchandise.
There's also a bit of a bonus if you're slightly tech savvy because you can often find their devs on Freenode at #gandi-mail or #gandi-hosting, though it's not advertised and there's no guarantee.
[0] https://www.gandi.net/supports/
[1] http://www.gandibar.net/post/2011/12/23/Gandi-s-Opposition-to-the-SOPA-Legislation
[2] https://www.gandi.net/no-bullshit
Not quite. Gandi has a morals clause in their ToS.
From the Gandi blog: (http://www.gandibar.net/post/2007/01/11/Gandi-fights-back-against-domain-abuse)
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.
Some of these things are fairly broad and vague. There's the whole grey area of speech that may or may not violate the rights of a third party. Then you have the whole "public order" thing. Plus, you're potentially dealing with French legal standards, which may be very different than the US standards that I'm used to.
I would just like to point out that Moxie Marlinspike is a hypocrite. Just two years ago he cried foul when an ISP revoked his SSL certificate because he provided falsified (whois) information [1][2], and now he cries foul because ISPs don't do enough to protect against falsified information.
1: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/05/googlesharing_cert_revoked/
2: http://www.gandibar.net/post/2010/04/06/TheRegistercouk-comments-on-gandi-s-removal-of-SSL-certificate-for-googlesharingnet
Gandi does a pretty good job explaining this [1] as a 'trademark brand protection phase'. Basically, if you have a registered trademark and want to defend it from others registering <YourTrademark>.<NewTLD> your opportunity to do so is during this phase. The rest of us commoners get to by the leftovers starting on the General Availibility date.
[1] http://www.gandibar.net/post/2013/10/29/The-launch-of-the-new-gTLDs