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.

American Automobile Association Seizes AAA.net Domain

Kikabink News reports that The American Automobile Association has won its battle against alleged ‘cybersquatter’ James M. Van Johns over the AAA.net domain. Check out the article.

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.

Insure.com Sells For $16 Million

Kikabink News reports that Insure.com, Inc. has sold its domain name and website for $16 million in cash. The company bought Insure.com for $1.6 million back in 2001.

Check out the article for more details.

Domain Name Renewal / Credentials Scam – ISP Renewal Reminder

I received this unsolicited commercial email asking me to renew a domain that I’d already renewed!

The company wanted $79.95 to renew a .com domain name! Of course, I had already renewed it for less than 10% of that price – with my REAL registrar.

Companies like this provide me with a constant source of entertainment. On their website under “How does it work?” you will find Step #2 in their instructions. It reads:

“We interact with your Internet Service Provider/ ISP to renew your domain name. In cases your ISP requires your login information we will contact you by mail and you will have to provide us with login information so we can preform a renewal.”

Ohhh… so I send you my credentials! Oh that makes sense…. here are mine for Network Solutions.

ID: newbiescammer

Password: latvia-ownz-my-domains

Please renew all my domains for me as they will expire soon. Wow…. that should take care of my portfolio. Now, back to outbidding Halvarez….

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.

Top Level Domain Holdings and Minds & Machines Merge

Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd has completed its merger with Minds & Machines, a leading registry services provider for web-based top-level domains. The merger follows TLDH’s 2.5M pound private capital raising (approximately US $4.1 million). For more information visit Kikabink News.

Tucows To Buy Back Shares

Tucows, Inc. (TCX) is commencing a ‘Dutch auction’ tender offer to repurchase up to 5 million shares of its common stock. This represents approximately 7.4 percent of Tucows’ outstanding shares.

Kikabink News has covered the story, providing some interesting commentary: “Companies vary in their motivations for doing share buy-backs. It can be a sign of huge faith in the company or it can be for other reasons. I won’t speculate here, but if I was an investor in Tucows I sure would want to know…”

You can view the latest Tucows share price on the right hand side of the page.  This year its gone from 0.31 to 0.56. What are your thoughts on this?

Auctions Crack Down On Shill Bidding

Domain name auctions are now starting to give the appearance of cracking down on non paying bidders.

Last week, Dynadot send me an email regarding users that were shill bidding in their expired auctions. Here is a picture of one such user:

Dynadot stated: “Effective immediately, if an auction order is not paid, our system will automatically ban the user from participating in any future auctions.”

Following hot on their heals, I received two email from Snapnames about an hour ago saying that the auctions for domainster.com and fullsize.com will be run again. Yes, I was in both auctions and was amazed by the sudden price increase towards the end.

Lets see how this one goes.

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.