[madflo]

This is called a NIC handle : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIC_handle

This is not some crazy French law; Gandi has been in the registrar business for quite a long time and OVH loves standards :-)

[AdamGibbins]

Good spot, thanks :) Never even occurred to me it would be registrar related, as I don't use OVH as a registrar - they must apply the same standard to all their customers.