No more .com.au > Just .au Proposal

[antman]

Pay attention to what auDA is considering doing to your .au domains!

With very little publicity, the manager of Australia’s domain names, auDA has released a new proposal for what could be the most radical (and controversial) change to the Internet ever in Australia. auDA is currently seeking public comment on an issues paper released by its 2007 Names Review Panel.

That issues paper includes three proposals:

1. to re-shape the .au domain into a horizontal structure by permitting registrations of any second level .au domain, such as domainname.au;
2. to change the current rules for .au domains, and
3. possibly allowing the private re-sale of .au domains.

If approved, these proposed changes could impose massive transition costs onto the rest of the Australian economy whilst enriching domain name registries and re-sellers. Eg: imagine having spent millions of dollars promoting your business’ current website (eg foo.com.au) only to see someone else register foo.au and then offer to sell it back to you for a “small” markup.

Removing the current requirement to register third level domain names within second-level .au domains (such as .com.au, .org.au, .net.au, .gov.au, .id.au) and only having .au domains would also risk preventing the gradual creation of new second-level domains to meet new society-wide needs (eg .xxx.au or .bank.au) as those needs are identified in the future. It would simply be too late if that .au domain has already been privately registered.

These proposals have not received much public attention (only ten submissions so far). If you are concerned about ensuring your voice is heard on these proposed changes to the .au domain, read through the issues paper and make a (polite) submission by sending your comments to:

Jo Lim
Chief Policy Officer, auDA
email: [email protected]
fax: 03 8341 4112

 

[BeZazz]

very interesting, thanks for posting the info

 

[italiandragon]

thanks, I`ll do my part, it`s finally time that something changes.

 

[James]

i rather like .com.au you can't just scrap it, it'll wreck a lot of aus businesses, guess we can't do anything and may aswell welcome it :P

 

[deu12000]

A nice fair solution that probably won't happen would be to allow the .com.au holders to get first crack at the .au version and then of course give me a crack at the .au's before the rest of the public . :sold:

 

[James]

i was about to post that suggestion, maybe this wont be that bad :P
also, they may offer .com.au redirects :O

 

[kev]

they should offer current .com.au owners names in the second level version for a period of say 60 days before offering them to the public!

 

[BDM1]

^ I agree.

thanks for the post, good info.

 

[VirtualT]

Why change it if its not broke???

Do we really want our namespace to become polluted and devalued. The only reason this could be happening is someone is making a buck, its not for the good of Australian consumers, and IMO we should be opposing it.

I'm proud of the integrity .au implies.

 

[champ_rock]

thanks for the post. interesting to note