AuDA, the .AU policy and regulatory body, has released draft recommendations on the introduction of new, and reactivation of dormant, second level domains following a consultation period with interested parties in recent months.The proposals were put forward in a report by a second level domain advisory panel that looked at possible new and proposals for existing but unused second level domains, the latter including the future uses of conf.au and info.au.In the report, the Panel suggests that current policies relating to creation of new 2LDs are broadly supported, but will recommend a small change which relieves the proponent of a new 2LD of the entire responsibility for developing a business case for it.On the second issue, the Panel has found that there is inadequate support for the creation of blog.au or event.au, or for the reactivation of info.au. The Panel also found that there is no evidence of general user demand for the reactivation of conf.au or info.au, although there is a case for grandfathering (ie. continuing) linux.conf.au, the sole but strongly-supported example of a long-standing use of the second level domain.The draft recommendations followed an issues paper that was issued in April 2010.The closing date for comment and submissions on the draft recommendations is Friday 23 July 2010.For further information, see www.auda.org.au/new2ldsap/new2ldsap-index/
Tag Archives: auDA
New 2LDs Considered for .AU
AuDA, the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .AU domain space, is currently considering whether to create new second level domains (2LDs) in the .AU domain space.AuDA’s New 2LDs Advisory Panel, chaired by Derek Whitehead of Swinburne University, has released a discussion paper inviting public comments on two matters:
- new 2LDs in general
- specific suggestions for creating new 2LDs or changing existing 2LDs.
The Panel’s job is to evaluate proposals for two little-used existing 2LDs (info.au and conf.au) and also proposals for two suggested new 2LDs (blog.au and event.au).”The Panel’s focus is on whether the creation of a new 2LD is in the public interest,” said Derek Whitehead. “The Panel is very keen to know what people think about new 2LDs and whether they would improve the Australian domain name system.””We encourage all Australians to contribute to the future development of their own domain space.”It should be noted that the proposals do not include opening up .AU to non-Australian registrants.The Panel’s discussion paper is available on auDA’s website at www.auda.org.au/new2ldsap/new2ldsap-index. The closing date for comments is 23 May 2010.Following submissions, the panel will make draft recommendations to the auDA board as to whether there should be new 2LDs or changes to existing 2LDs.
Australian registrar Safenames breaches auDA Registrar Agreement
auDA, the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .AU domain space, has found that the accredited registrar Safenames has breached the Registrar Agreement by:
- using its related entity (SafeAgent Ltd) to register domain names on behalf of foreign entities that would not otherwise be eligible to register .au domain names; and
- using its related entities to register domain names for purposes other than the provision of registrar services, in breach of clause 14.2.3 of the Registrar Agreement – refer to auDA’s Clarification of Permissible Own Use by Registrars (2008-11).
AuDA have noted that despite being given ample opportunity to do so, Safenames has failed to take action to remedy its breaches of the Registrar Agreement. Consequently, auDA has taken the following actions:
- the domain names in question have been deleted; and
- auDA will continue to monitor all domain name registrations effected by Safenames, and will immediately delete any registration that does not comply with auDA policy requirements, until such time as we are satisfied that Safenames is capable of complying with its obligations under the Registrar Agreement.
The above information was sourced from the auDA announcement at:
www.auda.org.au/news-archive/auda-06122009/
Registrar Secures Victory Against auDA
Brisbane, Australia
26 March 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Domain Directors, an auDA and ICANN accredited registrar, had an impressive victory over auDA, the regulator for the â.auâ domain space, in the Supreme Court of Queensland on Friday 20 March 2009. auDA had given an undertaking to reinstate a domain name that it had unilaterally deleted, and the Court ruled that auDA had to pay a significant part of Domain Directors legal costs as a result of auDAâs actions.
In November 2008, auDA deleted one of Domain Directorsâ long standing domain names, auregistry.com.au, without informing Domain Directors. Domain Directors has owned and used the auregistry.com.au domain name for over eight years.
Once Domain Directors discovered that the domain name had been deleted, by being placed on the âpending delete listâ, Domain Directorâs solicitors, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, tried to negotiate with auDA to have the domain name re-instated.
After days of correspondence and repeated requests to have to domain name re-instated, Domain Directors was forced to file proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court just 3 business days before the domain name was due to be permanently deleted.
Justice Dutney, of the Queensland Supreme Court, ruled that Domain Directors had no choice but to initiate legal proceedings to protect their interest in the domain name. Justice Dutney stated that auDA did not do anything to indicate that litigation was not necessary. Instead, auDAâs actions indicated that the only way Domain Directors was going to get its domain name back was by taking legal action.
As a result of auDAâs behaviour, Justice Dutney ruled that auDA had to pay Domain Directorsâ legal costs associated with filing the application in the Supreme Court of Queensland and the initial hearing of the application.
Domain Directorsâ CEO, Tony Lentino commented: âThe evidence presented to Justice Dutney showed that Chris Disspain, the CEO of auDA, took a personal interest in this matter. AusRegistry had made a complaint to auDA earlier in the year about this domain name, that was dismissed by auDAâs policy compliance officer. Mr Disspain then took it upon himself to unilaterally cancel our domain name, despite the auDA policy compliance officer disagreeing with his actions.â
Mr Tony Lentino said: âBy pursuing auDA in the Court, auDA backed down. We got our domain name back, a Court order stating that they have to pay a significant part of our legal costs and we showed them that if they act improperly again, they will have to explain their actions to the Court. auDA is not above the law. This is a significant victory not just for Domain Directors but for all Internet registrars and their customers.â
About Domain Directors
Domain Directors is an international registrar and provides an extensive range of over 200 country code Top Level Domain name extensions across Europe, America, and the Asia Pacific regions.
Domain Directors is a global supplier in the Domain Name and ENUM industry, with its head office in Melbourne, and offices in New Zealand and China.
For more information about Domain Directors, and its associated company, Instra Corporation, please visit http://www.instra.com
For Media Enquiries, please contact: media@instra.com
Registrar sues auDA for deleting domain name
[news release] Domain Directors, an associated company of Instra Corporation, an auDA (Australian Domain Name Administrator) and ICANN accredited registrar, yesterday commenced legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland against auDA, the Australian domain name policy and regulatory body.
Last week, auDA unilaterally cancelled Domain Directorâs domain name registration for âauregistry.com.auâ. Domain Directors have owned and used the domain name âauregistry.com.auâ for the past eight years.
Tony Lentino, the CEO of Domain Directors, said this afternoon:
âI am shocked at auDAâs actions. auDA brought down one of my long standing websites. auDA wrote the policy, made the complaint to itself, and acted as judge and jury, and then deleted my DNS entry without informing me. With auDA governing the system, no Australian domain name is safe.â
Originally, auDA informed Domain Directors that a third party had made a complaint about the âauregistry.com.auâ domain name, but after the lawsuit was commences, the lawyers for auDAâs informed Domain Directors that in fact, no complaint had been made.
John Swinson, partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques which is representing Domain Directors, says that the dispute will be heard in the Supreme Court of Queensland on Friday, 21 November.
Domain Directors is an international registrar and provides an extensive range of over 200 country code Top Level Domain name extensions across Europe, America, and the Asia Pacific regions.
About Domain Directors
Domain Directors is a global supplier in the Domain Name and ENUM industry, with its head office in Melbourne, and offices in New Zealand and China. For more information about Domain Directors, and its associated company, Instra Corporation, please visit www.instra.com
For Media Enquiries, please contact: media@instra.com
This news release was sourced from Domain Directors/Instra Corporation.
Selling your .AU domain names
Recently i have acquired a brochure from .AUDA and it goes through the policies of selling your .COM.AU domain name. So if you are looking at selling your .COM.AU on the aftermarket here is a few rules and regulations that you might want to read before going ahead.
They go through the usual policies then the key elements of selling your domain.
– You cannot register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to a third party.
– You cannot transfer your domain name for the first six months after it is registered (this does not apply to domain names that been renewed or previously transferred). You can apply to auDA for authrorisation to trasnfer within the first six months in special circumstances.
– After six months, you can offer your domain name for sale by any means.
– The buyer must comply with normal eligibility and allocation rules for .au domain names.
– Transfers will be processed by the registrar of record using a standard transfer form, and the registrar may be charge a transfer fee.
I hope this helps our readers.
Aussie Domains up for sale
So how much is www.sexy.com.au worth and can I sell the name? Actually, RU Sexy already beat you to that name but substitute another prospective domain name of your choice.
Up until now it has been difficult to answer questions about the value of Australian domain names and whether they can be transferred. Firstly, the Australian Domain Name Administrator (auDA) has been quite restrictive in its approach to domain name transfers. Secondly, there is little publicly available information about the price for which Australian domain names have been sold.
There is more public information about prices paid for dotcom domain names. However, Australian domain names are unlikely to have anywhere near the same value as a general rule. Some people say that a good rule of thumb is to divide the price paid for a dotcom domain name by 100 to get the value for a .com.au equivalent. Still, that could be a significant sum. So why the sudden interest in domain name values? auDA recently announced that it will be relaxing its rules on domain name transfers. Up until now, domain name transfers were effectively limited to situations where a person was selling their whole business along with the associated domain name.
Original article : http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=62836