Tag Archives: Bottle Domains

Australian Liquidator Considers Domain Names Assets

The value of domain names is well known. And following Australian Style, which traded as the registrar Bottle Domains, being placed in liquidation following their recent dispute with auDA, liquidators for the company have put their domain names up for auction viewing the domains as assets of the company. It is possible this is the first time domain names have been considered assets in the liquidation of a company in Australia.

Bottle Domains had their registrar accreditation terminated by the .AU policy and regulatory body for what was considered a serious breach of its obligations under the Registrar Agreement. The issue goes back to February 2009 when auDA was notified by the Australian Federal Police that there had been a security incident which affected customers of Bottle Domains.

auDA subsequently discovered that Bottle Domains was the subject of an earlier security incident in April 2007, which auDA believes may have caused or contributed to the security incident in February 2009.

Bottle Domains failed to notify auDA at the time of the April 2007 security incident, which was a breach of its obligations under the Registrar Agreement. Bottle Domains also failed to take appropriate remedial security action and alert customers of the incident.

As a result the Supreme Court of Victoria ordered Australian Style Pty Ltd to be placed in liquidation in April 2011.

Following auDA’s successful proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2009, auDA’s costs of the trial payable by Australian Style Pty Ltd were assessed and fixed by the Court at $373,312.49. auDA then served a statutory demand for payment of that amount which Australian Style Pty Ltd failed to comply with.

Now the liquidator, Ferrier Hodgson, is attempting to recoup money to pay off debtors including auDA through the sale of its assets, including the domain names.

The domain names include domainnames.net.au, domainames.com.au, domainname.net.au and rr.com.au that are currently for auction on Netfleet with current bids of $3000, $2001, $1001 and $1011 respectively. The auction ends Tuesday 21 June.

AuDA Seeks Winding Up of Former Registrar Following Termination

AuDA has gone to court to seek to have one of its former registrars Australian Style – that traded as Bottle Domains, wound up, according to a ZDNet report.The action arises from court action where auDA terminated the registrar accreditation for Australian Style in July 2010 for what was described as a serious breach of its obligations under the Registrar Agreement.According to the ZDNet report, Australian Style lost the court case and the appeal and has been lumped with court costs amounting to over $373,000. auDA said it had served a statutory demand for payment, which Australian Style has not complied with.The issue first came to the notice of auDA in February 2009 when the .AU policy and regulatory body was notified by the Australian Federal Police that there had been a security incident which affected customers of Bottle Domains. Investigations by auDA discovered that Bottle Domains was the subject of an earlier security incident in April 2007, which auDA believes may have caused or contributed to the security incident in February 2009.Bottle Domains failed to notify auDA at the time of the April 2007 security incident, according to an auDA statement, which was a breach of its obligations under the Registrar Agreement. Bottle Domains also failed to take appropriate remedial security action and alert customers of the incident.These failures led to auDA’s decision to terminate Bottle Domains’ registrar accreditation on 15 April 2009, however the termination had been suspended pending the conclusion of legal proceedings.To register your .AU domain name, check out EuroDNS here.
To register your .AU domain name, check out Asia Registry here.

Australian Registrar Bottle Domains Termination By auDA Confirmed By Court

auDA, the.AU policy and regulatory body, has terminated the registrar accreditation of Australian Style Pty Ltd, who trades as Bottle Domains, following a the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria dismissing Bottle Domains’ appeal in proceedings against auDA on 23 July 2010.The termination came about following a serious breach of its obligations under the Registrar Agreement by Bottle Domains.In February 2009, auDA was notified by the Australian Federal Police that there had been a security incident which affected customers of Bottle Domains. Refer to auDA Announcement 10/02/09.auDA subsequently discovered that Bottle Domains was the subject of an earlier security incident in April 2007, which auDA believes may have caused or contributed to the security incident in February 2009.Bottle Domains failed to notify auDA at the time of the April 2007 security incident, which was a breach of its obligations under the Registrar Agreement. Bottle Domains also failed to take appropriate remedial security action and alert customers of the incident.These failures led to auDA’s decision to terminate Bottle Domains’ registrar accreditation on 15 April 2009, however the termination had been suspended pending the conclusion of legal proceedings.Following Friday’s decision in its favour, auDA has today re-initiated the termination process. Approximately 8,900 domain names registered by Bottle Domains have been transferred to auDA, and the registrants of these names will be sent instructions on how to transfer to another auDA accredited registrar.”The domain names of Bottle Domains’ customers are NOT at risk. auDA is in the process of contacting all those whose domain name is registered through Bottle Domains to provide them with all the information they need” said auDA CEO, Chris Disspain.In its decision, the Court of Appeal recognised the importance of the system governing domain name allocation and use in Australia and that “protecting the system against unauthorised entry is therefore of paramount concern”.The Court also endorsed the actions of auDA, and its CEO, Chris Disspain: “Given the importance of the .au domain name system as a public resource to be administered in the public interest, it is in my opinion appropriate that this Court say clearly that it endorses the approach taken by Mr Disspain.”In his judgement, Justice Harper also said Bottle Domains “sought to persuade the trial judge that what on careful examination was clearly one thing, was actually another. His Honour was not persuaded.”However despite the damning judgement, Bottle Domains is claiming there are no problems anymore and the company sought to have their registrar accreditation reinstated in a statement they issued late Friday according to IT News.A spokesman claimed the company was “now operating at or above industry standards for internet security following a series of system improvements in line with auDA requirements,” reported IT News.”We have complied with auDA’s requirements and remedied all of the problems that had concerned the authority,” the spokesman said.He also claimed auDA-appointed security auditors had reviewed Bottle Domains’ security environment and “had been satisfied with their findings.””Given [our] commitment to the highest possible security standards, [we call] on auDA to now remove any doubt about the future of the registrar agreement which allows Bottle Domains to operate,” the spokesman said.The full court decision is available from:
www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSCA/2010/184.html