The Biggest Threat To Australian Internet Business

Do you have an Internet business? Are you an Internet Marketer, domainer or an SEO company? Then you better LISTEN UP as this will be the BIGGEST THREAT you will face in the next 12 months.

Did you know that every time you buy a .au domain name, included in that price is a hidden fee (some people would say tax). That fee is paid to a 3rd party called .au Domain Administration Ltd and is referred to as “auDA”. In Australia, auDA write the policies that govern domain names. One of these policies is called the Domain Monetisation Policy.

There is a Names Policy Panel that is reviewing this policy RIGHT NOW. The policy governs entities that earn revenue from a “monetised website”. According to auDA policy, a “monetised website” means “a website or landing page that has been created for the purpose of earning revenue from advertising, including monetised domain parking pages“. In my opinion, this policy clearly discriminates against people who make their living online. It discriminates against drop shippers, information marketers and those people that don’t have “physical stock” to sell. Rather than talk about registrants (people that register domains), it singles out and labels people as “domainers” who have the legitimate business practise of selling products and services online!

Let me spell out the threat in “Plain English”. If someone (such as a competitor / disgruntled customer) complains about your website/business, auDA has the power to take your domain away! They do this (from a technical perspective) by instructing the registry to put it into “Pending Delete”. Other people (such as your competitors) can then buy/backorder YOUR DOMAIN through the domain drop process. SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR BUSINESS. Goodbye to all the SEO you have done, goodbye to your mailing list!

How You Can Protect Your Business

1. Fill in this form TODAY (seriously, do it now)
Private individuals can become auDA members ( in a membership called Demand Class ). It costs $22 and no upfront payment is required.

2. Vote later this year
If you become a Demand Class member today, you can vote at the next election.

What I Am Doing About It

This year I will be running for election to the auDA board to represent the interests of small business, internet marketers and domain investors. I will be actively campaiging for you on this issue, to see this discriminatory policy scrapped!

This is only going to happen if you become a member. Please don’t come crying to me later (when your Internet business has been taken away from you). By then its too late.

Think of it like insurance. If you are serious about your business, you want to protect it. $22 is nothing in the scheme of things.

Just so that you are aware, the election is at the end of the year, but there is a sneaky “3 month membership rule” which prevents new members from voting. As such you cannot delay this application!

Can you do the industry a BIG favour? Fill in this form NOW: http://www.auda.org.au/pdf/auda-membership-form.pdf

After you have done it, drop me a line and let me know. I really want to know WHO the proactive people are – those that will help to safeguard our industry. If you have any questions (or need a stamp/fax), let me know.

Go here now.

[Help] Us Shape The Future Of .au

As you may know, I’ve been representing the interests of both the domain investment community and small business on the auDA Names Policy Panel. The panel today released:

1. A discussion paper to the general public based upon deliberations to date.

2. This survey to seek public opinion on domain monetization, misspellings, eligibility and allocation policy rules.

Why should you care? Because:

1. If you buy .au domain names (or want to buy them, but you can’t), this gives you an opportunity to get your voice heard and change the rules.

2. If you think that domain monetization (eg: parking) is a legitimate business practice and want to see the “domain monetization policy” abolished, then now is your chance! Seriously, go and tell auDA what you REALLY think! Should Australia continue to be the only country in the world with these restrictions?

Anyone can provide feedback – you don’t have to be an auDA Member.

What You Should Do Right Now

Its Friday, take some time out and fill in this survey.

Thanks again for your support.

auDA Caves In And Releases Secret Ballot Numbers

Over the past few days I’ve been receiving a lot of phone calls and email messages from auDA members who are angry and frustrated with what happened at the 2010 AGM.

I’d like to set the record straight.

I attend the auDA AGM as a demand class member, but more importantly, representing the interests of small business and professional domain name investors. As a small business owner myself, its something I feel very strongly about.

After the votes were cast into a box, a number of people went off to another room to count them. There was no truly independent 3rd party to review this process. There was no independent scrutineers – we were just told of the result.

Having spoken to many small business owners and domain investors I had a good idea of how many votes I had. What has shocked me, and has shocked the entire industry is that auDA refused to disclose the voting numbers because they claim it was a “secret ballot”.

Later that afternoon I posted the results on this very blog. What I didn’t know was that the auDA board was meeting behind closed doors and discussing this issue.

What has since transpired is that auDA has emailed its members and disclosed the numbers. This has never happened before and I’m told that it’s a direct result of my candidacy.

Here are the numbers:

Richard Bone – 2 votes
Kevin Fleming – 2 votes
Kim Heitman – 34 votes
Simon Johnson – 21 votes
Erhan Karabardak – 23 votes
Cheryl Langdon-Orr – 32 votes
Kelvin Markham – 2 votes

What is not clear is if these numbers include any votes that auDA may have deemed “invalid”. For example, people filling in the form incorrectly. Votes are sent in via fax to Maddocks (auDA’s lawyers). Who knows if your vote was counted or not!

At the end of the day, this is a huge win for our campaign for transparency. In the 10 years auDA has been going, its never disclosed this information… until now.

Result of 2010 auDA Board Election

First of all I want to say a BIG thank you to all the people that voted this year. Unfortunately I did not get elected to the board. The election was won by Kim H and Cheryl L who were the incumbent Directors.

For the record, I asked to see the votes at the AGM and was told (no) it was a “secret ballot”. As such, I dont know if I lost by 1 vote or 10 votes. This is obviously not acceptable and I’ll be pursuing this with auDA.

In any case, today marks the first day of my 2011 campaign as I’m going to run again! This result has made me even more determined and I’m going to do everything possible to ensure that the auDA board (and its policies) are representative of both small business and domain investors.

The industry needs someone to “keep fighting for what is right” and I’m going to continue this until such time as things change.

I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be our year and I look forward to your continued support!

Simon Johnson Appointed To auDA Names Policy Panel

A few minutes ago we received confirmation from auDA that Simon Johnson had been appointed to the Names Policy Panel.

The purpose of the panel is to:

1. Review the policy framework underlying the allocation and use of domain names in the .au domain space
2. Provide recommendations to the auDA board about what changes should be made to the policy framework.

The Panel is expected to commence work in September 2010. If you have any specifics that you would like Simon to raise, feel free to leave a comment on contact us directly. Please also note that there will be a public consultation in December 2010.

Australian Government To Consider Public Comments On ICANNs gTLD’s.

The Australian Government has released a Fact Sheet on ICANN’s new gTLD process. The purpose is to raise community awareness and allow interested people the opportunity to feed comments back to the Government.

A spokesperson from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) told Domainer Income that the Australian Government “is not conducting a formal consultation with a set time frame“, however DBCDE “will consider any comments received“.

Its known that many Governments, including Australia, provide advice to ICANN on matters of interest or concern through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). However, final decision making authority ultimately rests with the ICANN Board.

The Australian Government is an active member of the GAC, and has been since its inception in 1999. Officers from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy represent the Australian Government in the GAC. Note that ICANN meets three times a year and right now, the GAC is meeting in Brussels.

This presents many Domain Investors with a unique opportunity to provide feedback directly to the Australian government, without going through auDA. The reason I mention that, is because auDA holds the “delegation of authority for administration of the au ccTLD” on behalf of the Commonwealth (of Australia).

As such, I’d STRONGLY encourage everyone to submit questions, comments and/or concerns – about ICANN’s proposal to the following:

Via Email: newgTLDs at DBCDE.gov.au

In Writing:

The Director
Internet Governance, IPND and Numbering Team
Department of Broadband, Communications
and the Digital Economy
GPO Box 2154
Canberra ACT 2601

Feel free to post a comment and let everyone know you made a submission.

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.

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.