auDA Puts Domain In Pending Delete & Goes On Holidays

On the afternoon of Thu 17th, 2009 SAPIA Pty Ltd registered the domain name “stephenconroy.com.au” as a satirical platform on which to air grievances and promote debate about the Australian governments proposed mandatory Internet filtering scheme. By 5pm the next day, the website was forcibly taken offline by auDA.

SAPIA was given merely 3 hours to issue a response which is an unusually short period of time for domain eligibility complaints to be arbitrated. A request for additional time was denied personally by auDA’s CEO shortly before the domain was taken offline.

The domain name stephenconroy.com.au is now in PendingDelete and the auDA office is closed for the holiday season – Merry Christmas.

Meanwhile, Electronic Frontiers Australia has expressed its surprise and concern:

“This incident reflects worrying concerns about the power that private domain
name regulators have to silence critical political speech without going
through legitimate legal channels.”

SAPIA Pty Ltd appears to have re-established the site (out of the range of auDA’s jurisdiction / claws) at stephen-conroy.com (no more .au).

Just in case you don’t know what the fuss is all about regarding Internet censorship in Australia, have a look at this video:

More information is available at: PRWeb, Open Letters & EFA.

Horse Race Stops Expired Domains In Australia

It appears that AusRegistry didn’t release .au expired domains today. This would normally happen on National Public Holidays, but its not a National Public holiday….

It just so happens that in Melbourne, Victoria (where AusRegistry is based) its the running of the Melbourne Cup.

In February, 2009 auDA announced that it had extended its .au Registry Licence Agreement with AusRegistry until 2014. They have a few more Melbourne Cups to get it right.

Aussie Regulator Targets Domainers

This afternoon I received an email from auDA (the “industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain space”) thanking me for my submission to the Domain Renewal, Expiry and Deletion Policy (2006-07). They kindly informed me that the outcome of the review had been published on their website.

What should concern every investor who buys .com.au are the comments that auDA made in relation to “unofficial drop lists”.

Here is the initial question posed by auDA back in August:

“What action (if any) auDA should take in relation to unofficial domain drop lists, and the domain-catching services being provided by some accredited registrars and other industry participants.”

Here is an extract from the “response to public comments“. I have highlighted particular areas of interest.

“Submissions that commented on this issue were roughly divided between those that argued for no action to be taken, and those that wanted to see this type of activity more directly managed or regulated by auDA.”

“In the latter category, 7 submissions supported the publication of an official domain drop list, and 3 submissions supported the introduction of a centrally managed domain release/auction process.”

auDA Response

“We note that many of the submissions that argued for no action to be taken on this issue came from people who currently provide or use domain-catching services. Other submissions pointed out that ordinary members of the public are not aware of, or do not have access to, these services and are therefore at a significant disadvantage. Our experience in handling complaints and inquiries from the public tends to support this view. We propose to publish an official, authoritative domain drop list. The list would be updated daily and would include the exact date and time that domain names will become available for registration. As with the previous issue, we believe this change would help to level the playing field. It would also help to avoid any confusion or uncertainty which may arise from unofficial drop lists.”

“We have given consideration to proposals that auDA take a more direct role in managing the release of expired and deleted domain names, for example through a centralised auction process. This would represent a major change to the Australian DNS which we do not believe is warranted at this time. Our expectation is that the publication of an official drop list will enable more registrars and other industry participants to offer drop-catching services, which will increase consumer awareness and choice.”

– ends –

So let me get this straight:

1. There were 35 submissions in total, and according to auDAs own statement, 7 supported the publication of a drop list. So the regulator is appearing to ignore the majority of submissions via public comment, and publish their own list anyway.

2. auDA says that “ordinary members of the public are not aware of, or do not have access to, these services and are therefore at a significant disadvantage.” How? Where is the evidence? Anyone can sign up to a drop catching service. How is this being significantly disadvantaged?

3. auDA claims that publishing their “official, authoritative domain drop list” would “help to level the playing field”. I personally believe that this will interfere with the operation of a free market.

4. As for auDA’s expectation that more registrars and other industry participants will “offer drop-catching services, which will increase consumer awareness and choice.” This statement clearly demonstrates complete ignorance of the .au marketplace and how it technically operates.

Looking into my crystal ball, I see:

* Registrars holding onto the domains registered (by users) with them;

* Other registrars (owned by the same company with multiple credentials) having a distinct advantage over the general public;

* Other companies getting into the drop catching business, thinking they can make a quick buck by promising to register a name at a particular time;

* The general public being under the illusion that they can hand register a .com.au that day at 3pm (or whenever the auDA decide the time is);

Its clear to me that we are seeing a bunch of bureaucrats desperately trying to keep themselves in a job, as opposed to letting a free market decide.

Domainer Nominates For auDA Board – Needs Your Help

auDA is the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain space. Its Annual General Meeting is to be held on 19 October 2009. The AGM will elect four directors to the board and I (Simon Johnson) have been nominated to stand for election by the Demand class members.

In order to vote, you must qualify under clause 16.1 of auDA’s constitution and your membership fee has to be paid.

You can read my candidate statement online; in summary, I stand for reform within auDA to increase transparency and the free-market commercialization of Australian namespace.

I know that some people think that having a Domainer on Board of auDA is unthinkable (and maybe an impossible task, in terms of getting elected). That’s why I’m asking for your help.

Please have a look through the auDA Members list and see if you know anyone in the Demand section. If you do, please contact them now and ask for them to vote for Simon Johnson. You can download my (already filled in) Proxy form here.

With your support, I’m hopeful that we can change the .au landscape for the better.

Australian Regulator To Review Domain Name Renewal, Expiry and Deletion

This afternoon I received an email from auDA requesting comment on their Domain Expiry, Renewal and Deletion Policy. auDA has specifically asked for comments around:

1. Whether the current 30 day pending delete period for expired domain names (ie. where the registrant has not renewed their domain name) is appropriate.
2. Whether the current “domain purge” procedure (ie. where domain names are purged from the registry at a random time between 10.30am and 5.00pm AEST on the next business day after the pending delete period ends) is effective.
3. What action (if any) auDA should take in relation to unofficial domain drop lists, and the domain-catching services being provided by some accredited registrars and other industry participants.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 11 September 2009. You can find all the submission details on the auDA web site.

OzBargain Typo Squatted – Diverts To eBay

Popular Australian bargain site, ozbargain.com.au has been typosquatted. That’s right – if you visit ozbargin.com.au (note that its missing an “a”) right now, the website diverts to eBay.

auDA has a “Prohibition on Misspellings Policy (2008-09)” which specifically states under section 4 “Scope of Prohibition”:

“4.1 The prohibition on misspellings applies where:

a) the domain name is a misspelling of an entity, personal or brand name that does not belong to the registrant; and

b) the registrant has deliberately registered the misspelling in order to trade on the reputation of the other entity, person or brand.

4.2 For the purposes of the prohibition, a domain name will be regarded as a misspelling if it falls into one of the following categories:

a) the singular version of a plural name, or the plural version of a singular name (eg. woolworth.com.au, safeways.com.au);

b) a name with missing letters (eg. yhoo.com.au);

c) a name with additional letters (eg. quantas.com.au);

d) a name with transposed letters (eg. goolge.com.au, wetspac.com.au);

e) a name with letters replaced by numbers, or numbers replaced by letters (eg. 9msn.com.au);

f) a hyphenated version of a name (eg. e-bay.com.au, micro-soft.com.au);

g) a name prefixed by “www” (eg. wwwseek.com.au); or

h) any other name that auDA determines is a deliberate misspelling, having regard to the surrounding circumstances.”

—

The ozbargin.com.au domain was last modified March 21, 2009; however its not known how long this has been going on for, nor how much the squatter has made in eBay affiliate sales (if any).

The company that owns ozbargin.com.au is YEE TECH PTY. LTD – ABN: 94102253734 registered in Baulkham Hills NSW.

A complaint has already been sent to auDA – lets see how long it takes them to act.

Happy Birthday Australia – .com.au Market Turns One!

Its been a year since auDA changed the rules to allow people to buy and sell Australian domains names.

So, what’s happened since then? My friends at Netfleet clocked up 30,000 domains, 1,500 offers and 105 transactions. Not bad when 99.9% of the population doesn’t understand the basic concept that you can buy/sell these things.

Just to put the icing on the cake; this week mortgage.net.au apparently sold for $13,500! I nearly fell off my chair when I read this – FOR A .NET.AU ? What the? Others include jeweller.com.au for $14,767 and freestuff.com.au for $18,700.

So, at least we are off to a start. It certainly wasn’t the big bang that people said it would be. Why am I not surprised? Despite being an Aussie, I personally haven’t been a fan of the .com.au namespace, but I am warming up to it….

Of course things would be better if the Australian government changed the backward, dysfunctional, judge, jury and executioner, “regulator” who is continuously in the media for all the wrong reasons, making Australia a complete joke on the world stage. Here are a few quotes from recent articles:

• Bolton dusts off for another courtroom scrap

“Cheyne Jonstone, of Cove Business Technology, has also called on Senator Conroy to sort out the mess….Senator Stephen Conroy needs to act now and act quickly. The government appointed this body to implement policy and regulate the .au domain name space, but their actions of late demonstrate that they are failing to do that adequately, or more importantly, the actions of their CEO, Chris Disspain.”

• Opinion: auDA recklessness damages Australian domain industry

“Larry Bloch, CEO and co-founder of Netregistry says Chris Disspain of auDA has acted as judge, jury and executioner by cancelling Bottle Domains’ accreditation so suddenly, here he talks to CRN about how this action is now proving to be grossly negligent.”

• Bottle Domains settlement talk scuttled as damages loom

“auDA chief Chris Disspain gave iTnews a categoric “no” when asked if the regulator would consider settling the case before it goes to trial on 24th June….. He also said the regulator had a strong enough cash position – some $4.3 million in reserves – to back up a further unfavourable ruling from the Victorian Supreme Court.”

Should auDA exist in its current form? Should there be protests at ICANN’s 35th meeting in Sydney this month, calling for the Australian government to step in, use their reserve powers in relation to domain names (under the Telecommunications Act 1997) and remove auDA? Perhaps transfer it to ACMA or another body, with more experience, that’s truly representative of the industry.

Post and let me know what you think.

auDA Wants Feedback On Industry Competition

auDA’s Industry Competition Advisory Panel is currently reviewing their competition model for the Australian domain name industry.

The Panel has released an Issues Paper for public consultation, which sets out the current situation and canvasses the issues and possible options for change. The closing date for submissions is Friday 1 August 2008.

Here are a few interesting points:

• “Abandon the competitive registry model and make auDA the registry operator”
  

This sounds like someone has been talking too much to ICANN or Verisign.

• “the start-up capital costs constitute the most significant barrier for prospective new entrants” Ohhh.. the poor kids down the road can’t become an operator.

HELLO, its called capitalism ! I’d note that “Accredited registrars pay an annual fee to auDA of $3,300 and there is also a $2,200 non-refundable accreditation application fee.”

• “auDA does not have the legal power to impose financial penalties on a registrar who has breached the Registrar Agreement.”

So registrars can basically do whatever they want as long as its not serious, to the point of suspension or termination the registrar’s accreditation.

• “Questions have been raised however, about the extent to which registrars should be allowed to participate in domain-related activities other than the core business of registering domain names for registrants. For example, is it appropriate or desirable for registrars to be in the business of warehousing domain names for their own domain monetisation purposes?”
  

Watch out – its those evil domainers again!

• “It has been suggested that this lack of market transparency could be addressed by publishing a list of deleted and expiring domain names, or by placing the domain names in a “holding pool” for a period of time before making them available to the general public.“

This is just a bad idea. Again, see the word capitalism. Looking into my crystal ball I see auDA being in a position to profit from this “holding pool”. Who will have the independence to maintain it?

It appears that auDA needs all the help it can get. Have a look at the Issues Paper and send your comments to:

auDA Industry Competition Advisory Panel
email: i...@auda.org.au
fax: 03 8341 4112

.com.au – What Do The auDA Changes Mean?

About auDA

For those that don’t know, auDA is a government endorsed entity that was formed in 2000, so administer the .au domain space.

To date, auDA has resisted attempts to open up the .com.au namespace so that anyone can register a domain name. In fact, their policies are just plain prehistoric. Around December 2007, auDA “suspended new registrar accreditation applications”. The auDA board minutes tell us that this was “due to a backlog”, however if you read on it also says “noted some challenges that have arisen recently, with more overseas-based applicants and existing registrars seeking multiple accreditations.” In other words – bunker down kids – those evil domainers are comin!

Policy

Last year, the auDA Names Policy Panel made a recommendation to the auDA board that the transfers policy “be relaxed”. In simple terms, the new policy says:

• You can’t register a domain name”for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to a third party“.

• You can’t transfer your domain name for the first 6 months.

• You can sell a domain name after 6 months.

• If you transfer it to someone else, then you “will be asked to disclose the sale method and price, on a voluntary and confidential basis”.

• auDA may “collect aggregated statistical data to improve access to market information for buyers and sellers.”

So, how is auDA going to enforce these rules? No, really. What’s in it for auDA to collect market data – apart from promoting domain name prices in a heavily regulated market?

How Do I Register?

Before you jump in and say “EUREKA – I’m going to get me some .com.au domains” – you also still need to qualify under the eligibility and allocation rules. This basically means you need to be Australian and/or have a company structure / ABN.

In any case, the media has gotten wind of this and is hyping it up to be an “open market”. While its step in the right direction, the restrictions are still a joke.

Perhaps the Australian Internet industry needs an industry body that represents those that want a free and open, commercial market? Should auDA even exist? What do you think?