This just in, auDA release Final Consultation Licensing Rules…
The rules governing the issuing of licences for the use of domain names in the .au ccTLD, as at April 2019.
Take a slow, long, hard look and read and let it sink in over the next few days:
Link: https://www.auda.org.au/assets/Uploads/auDA-Licencing-Rules-consultation-final.pdf
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And… it seems one or two auDA Board Members didn’t like many of The PRP’s recommendations…
https://www.auda.org.au/public-comment/
“A number of the PRPs recommendations have been rejected. When considering the PRP’s report, auDA was not satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to justify such changes, considering that the changes would be difficult to enforce. “
Here, here!
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And … below are some very sensible decisions made by at least one auDA Board Member:
https://www.auda.org.au/assets/Uploads/Management-Report-PRP-Recommendations-Final.pdf
Recommendation 5
“A Person can transfer a licence to another eligible Person by novation of the Licence Agreement and by the transferee Person entering into a new Licence Agreement. The commercial nature of this arrangement is a matter between parties.”
“There is no evidence that domain name flipping as an investment strategy is having a negative impact on the utility of the .au domain nor resulting in a scarcity of domain names”
The PRP has not provided any evidentiary material on which to assess the nature of the warehousing problem and what, if any, action is required.
The warehousing prohibition appears to disproportionately target domain investors as the licence portfolios or holdings of trademark and brand owners will be excluded under the PRP proposal. This proposal elevates the rights of trademark and other intellectual property owners over other licence holders in the .au domain, which may give rise to issues of market power and anti-competitive practices.
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Recommendations 6 & 7
Management does not support the PRP recommendation for a resale and warehousing prohibition for the reasons set out earlier. The proposed test for determining whether a registrant has contravened the resale and warehousing prohibition will increase compliance costs for registrants and administration, monitoring and enforcement costs for auDA. These costs may be disproportionate to the risk or severity of the harm to the community from warehousing and the cost of a licence in the .au domain.
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Recommendation 9
“A person who satisfies the eligibility and allocation criteria for a licence in the com.au, net.au or .au namespace will be able to use that licence for any legitimate purpose, including domain name monetisation or domain name investment.”
“A domain name [can] be used for the purpose of pay-per-click or affiliate web advertising/ lead generation, or electronic information services including email, file transfer protocol, cloud storage or managing Internet of Things (IoT) devices.”
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Recommendation 16
Management does not support the retention of the Prohibition of Misspellings Policy (2008-09) as it duplicates existing causes of action under common law passing off, consumer law relating to misleading and deceptive conduct, trademark infringement and the .au Dispute Resolution Policy (2016-01).
Finally!!!!!! Woohoo!! No more silly “Misspellings Policy”!!! Good riddance!
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If you’re interested in reading about Implementation of Direct .AU before we write about this in detail soon… Start from Page 14.
This is very strange? The auDA Policy Review Panel submissions only closed at 5pm Friday and this gets released tonight which is so radically different to the PRP paper final report?
Out of the 4 poorly attended auDA PRP Meetings 100% of people voted against the introduction of non English characters.. yet here it is in the document they will do it?
When was this document written?
No other namespace in the world has such a complex mess of policy and red tape. None!
auDA must NOT allow Chinese or non English character .au domain names..
Here is why it is a really bad idea and threat to Australian Critical Infrastructure and .au consumers!
.au domain name China Criminal Plot has already occurred!
https://www.afr.com/technology/web/security/more-than-1000-australian-websites-taken-down-following-chinaled-criminal-plot-20161007-grxa2o
http://www.domainpulse.com/2016/10/10/auda-deletes-1000-ineligible-domains/
Dang!
If I were Afilias, I’d want my money back from Laurie Patton and Ian Hanke!
They had no idea.
You know its getting Scary when you think your gonna have to register a business name such as;
Australian-Lifestyle-Tradie-Web Development-Transport-Insurance-Business-Artwork PTY LTD
Just to satisfy the close & substantial rule.
So what exactly was the point of the PRP, if they’re going to ignore the recommendations?
Ironic how the auDA was not satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to justify some of the changes…
Thanks for keeping us up to date on this. I see the 4th Feb 2018 is the cut off date but how do we find the creation dates of Australian domain names?
A big FU#K YOU to the PRP and troublemakers from the world’s biggest names and auDA Board.
https://www.internetcommerce.org/auda-management-rejects-wrongful-attempts-to-prohibit-domain-name-investment-in-australia/
“auDA Management Rejects Wrongful Attempts to Prohibit Domain Name Investment in Australia
April 15, 2019
The Internet Commerce Association (the “ICA”) Congratulates Australian Domain Investors on the rejection of certain Proposed Policy Changes in the Australian namespace which would have had a detrimental effect on domain name investors and on the Australian namespace.
On April 15, 2018, auDA management responded to the Policy Review Panel’s Final Report and Recommendations (the “PRP”).
The ICA had submitted a detailed response to the Final Report (“the ICA Comment”) and auDA Management has clearly taken it to heart. https://www.internetcommerce.org/ica-recommendations-to-the-auda-board-reform-of-existing-policies-implementation-of-direct-registration/
As pointed out in the ICA Comment, and as concluded by auDA Management, “there is no evidence that domain name flipping as an investment strategy is having a negative impact on the utility of the .au domain nor resulting in a scarcity of domain names” and that “the PRP has not provided any evidentiary material on which to assess the nature of the warehousing problem and what, if any, action is required”.
Moreover, auDA Management rightly concluded that, “the warehousing prohibition appears to disproportionately target domain investors as the licence portfolios or holdings of trademark and brand owners will be excluded under the PRP proposal. This proposal elevates the rights of trademark and other intellectual property owners over other licence holders in the .au domain, which may give rise to issues of market power and anti-competitive practices.”
auDA management accordingly, “DOES NOT SUPPORT THE PRP RECOMMENDATION FOR A RESALE AND WAREHOUSING PROHIBITION”.
Moreover, auDA Management has “abolished” the domain monetisation rule for the com.au and net.au namespaces: “A Person….will be able to use [their domain name] for any legitimate purpose, including domain name monetisation or domain name investment. This is consistent with the approach in other ccTLDs, including .ca, .nz, .fr, .uk and .de domains.”
The ICA is very pleased that auDA Management has gotten these crucial issues right and that it has resisted unsubstantiated and ill-conceived attempts to prohibit domain name investing and monetisation in the .au namespace.
The ICA believes that the rejection of these proposed policies will ensure the continued viability and success of the .au namespace and expresses its appreciation for auDA management’s clear rejection of these wrongheaded policy proposals which would have dramatically affected domain name investment in Australia.”
Domain Name Wire – Australia domain administrator denies domain investing ban – https://domainnamewire.com/2019/04/15/australia-domain-administrator-denies-domain-investing-ban/
DNJournal –
It Pays to Speak Up: Australian Domain Authority Rejects Attempt to Ban Domain Investing There – http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2019/dailyposts/20190415.htm
Domain Incite – auDA rejects domaining ban but approves second-level domains – http://domainincite.com/24149-auda-rejects-domaining-ban-but-approves-second-level-domains?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DomainIncite+%28DomainIncite.com%29
IT WIRE – https://www.itwire.com/strategy/86754-auda-changes-policy-on-domain-name-investing-practices.html%E2%80%AC
auDA & Afilias paid trolls still don’t get it.
Laurie Patton’s trolling against domain name investment and auDA Whistleblowers often contains this statement… there it is in Black and White for all to see:
“Laurie Patton has provided advice to auDA and to Afilias Australia, the company managing the .au registry for auDA.”
auDA and Afilias need to SACK Ian Hanke and Laurie Patton immediately. They are damaging to auDA and Afilias reputations and well as the .au namespace.
https://www.itwire.com/strategy/86754-auda-changes-policy-on-domain-name-investing-practices.html%E2%80%AC
https://johnmenadue.com/laurie-patton-fair-trade-or-exploitation-the-warehousing-of-internet-domain-names/
http://theluckygeneral.biz/2019/03/27/fair-trade-or-exploitation-the-warehousing-of-internet-domain-names/
https://www.itwire.com/strategy/83945-auda-director-quits-over-mass-recruitment-of-members.html
https://mumbrella.com.au/why-we-should-care-about-changes-to-our-internet-domain-names-system-542531
https://johnmenadue.com/laurie-patton-whats-going-on-at-auda-the-battle-over-internet-domain-names/
https://assets.com.au/ian-hanke-pr-auda-spin-doctor/
https://whizzbangsblog.com/article-archive/auda-you-have-no-idea
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwii-tzgtt_cAhUBf7wKHa89B1UQFjABegQICBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Finternet-australias-laurie-patton-muddies-nbn-debate%2Fnews-story%2F7e968124eadcfab8206803b7ac887e7c&usg=AOvVaw00Hi5fVsnRi5CqYA1TFaKP
Internet Australia’s LAURIE PATTON muddies NBN debate – The Australian
“Sep 2, 2017 – In May Laurie Patton fronted Channel 10s The Project before a … with Morrow referring to Patton as a “TROLL” under parliamentary privilege. “
At least now we’ll be in line with all other tlds, even the chinese don’t have the current red tape.
While some people are squabbling over legitimate Australian businesses purchasing too many domains, the Chinese scammers are having a wow of a time registering whatever .au domain they want in random ABN/ACN’s and making great profits from selling counterfeit goods to Australian consumers.
Auda need to put a lot more time into verifying the accuracy of the data in their system, send people to audrp if their mark is being infringed on and tell people to find a new domain if they can’t get a domain that is registered by someone else!
There’s more .au domain names that have been registered previously available right now, than there is registered domain names, there’s millions of great domain names that are still available!
This just out – international media still happening in regards to how bad The PRP’s Final Report has been taken – Zak from InternetCommerce.org explains here https://www.domainsherpa.com/ica-2019q1/ at 26:50 …