I’ve been speaking with Cameron Bell who’s been trying to launch a new Australian Registrar and Drop Catcher in Australia this past week and unfortunately, it looks like auDA’s constant endless hurdles have made it impossible for him to continue with the launch.
They have effectively denied his efforts by creating brick wall after brick wall.
At the latest auDA Melbourne Member Networking event, Cam and I were speaking with Rosemary Sinclair (auDA CEO) and I heard her say to Cam, flat-out, that it didn’t matter if it took 100 years for his application to be approved, she wouldn’t approve it unless she decided he was ready. She also said she was the only one who had authority to approve his application and would not be showing it to the board.
Cam has asked us to publish his simple version of his auDA Registrar Application experience below, for the record, so here it is;
I have officially withdrawn my application to become an auDA accredited Registrar.
After almost 18 months of roadblocks and delays it has become clear to me that auDA has no intention of ever allowing me to become accredited. The latest batch of manufactured issues are beyond a joke and I am not silly enough to push against something that’s impossible for reasons that I can’t completely understand at this point in time.
Here are a few choice hurdles auDA have put in my way since the beginning;
- I paid auDA thousands of dollars as an “application fee”. Little did I know it would be a waste of money with no chance of jumping through their never-ending hurdles after 18 months.
- I spent thousands of dollars on front and backend software design and advanced server rental throughout the entire 18 months.
- auDA demanded I have a Reseller Account with an existing Registrar for at least 6 months, even though (as stated in the application docs) they can waive it for those with “appropriate experience”. For the record, my domain industry experience is over 17 years running both ICANN and auDA accredited Registrars.
- In any case, I then purchased a reseller (Aussie Names) that had been around for many years and continued the application process. It wasn’t until about a year later that I was told it wasn’t sufficient.
- In the meantime, and toward the beginning of the application process, auDA demanded DropCatcher pass a system security audit by one of auDA’s external contractors. auDA stated they would share the results. So, at very short notice my development team and I submitted all the information and had an interview with the auditors and auDA. When I say short, I mean we were given notice on a Thursday, the audit spreadsheet was shared with us on Friday, Monday was a public holiday and the audit was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. We pulled it together over the weekend and the auditors were extremely impressed with our systems. Despite auDA’s earlier promises the report was never released to me or mentioned again. Now looking back, this appears to me to have been an auDA roadblock that failed for them, so they worked on creating the next roadblock.
- Around fifteen months after my application auDA decided to hire an external company who created an additional “risk assessment” questionnaire of around 45 questions that I needed to answer. This was never part of the application form or Registrar Agreement. No other Registrar has ever had to answer this questionnaire in the past. I don’t believe any current Registrar has had to answer the questions in this questionnaire.
- I answered the questionnaire in full and auDA then requested to have interviews with my bank and accountant and another series of never-ending questions.
Despite my technical team and my own decades of domain name Registrar experience, audited security pedigree, compliance with information requests, up and running reseller account, demonstrably stable website and software, demonstrably working drop catching technology (as we’ve caught dozens of domain names as a “reseller”) – auDA still has seemingly unlimited “concerns”, and it seems, always will.
Again, after almost 18 months of roadblocks and delays it has become clear to me that auDA has no intention of ever allowing me to become accredited, for reasons that I can’t currently explain.
With all of that, I’ve decided to concentrate on another aspect of my life for now. As for DropCatcher, Robert Kaay from DBR and Assets Australia made an offer to purchase the DropCatcher brand and technology and I have accepted.
The future for DropCatcher is not clear, but Rob assures me he won’t let it die. I’m convinced the software my talented development team has built will dominate when coupled with a Registrar connection – and that seems to frighten some.
I have faith Rob and the domain name community will somehow figure out a way to bring a much needed second Drop Catcher to the Australian domain market in the future, and who knows, I may even come back at that time to be a part of it all.
That’s all for now and I wish all the people who were backing DropCatcher success in the future. I’ve archived the 80+ emails I’ve exchanged with auDA and will be happy to share with anyone who’s interested, including new prospective Registrar’s who will have to go through the same thing, or will they?
We need a more Australain domain Registrars and drop catchers. I wish those who try to launch one after me success and luck.
-Cam
Bloody frustrating Cam, can’t say you didn’t try. I wish you all the best for the future and Robert I hope you can get this baby up and running for the domain community.
No doubt a difficult decision but respect for making a valiant attempt to follow what you want to do. This being the case how many others have attempted and failed in recent years to apply to be a registrar? It throws into question whether any new registrars are viable and what that means for competition and protection especially if there was consolidation. eg. cloudflare if they wanted to apply would they face similar denial?
I wasn’t aware only one person could approve new registrars. After that length of time and with that much experience surely they could have approved on condition and just turned the new dropcatcher off if it made a mistake. It looks like they weren’t ever going to approve any new registrar. I can’t understand the reasoning?
Well done auDA. Keep the monopolies going. Keep giving yourself bonus KPIs and raises. Keep silencing the board members from seeing anything worth debating . auDA is looking more and more anti competitive every day. This could be the worst version of auDA we’ve ever seen. Just wait until October…
Ned O’Meara has also written, “There seems to be something seriously wrong at auDA. When seasoned industry veterans with tons of experience can’t get an application to become a new registrar approved in a period of 18 months, then one has to question whether the powers that be at auDA are observing their “Terms of Endorsement” from the Australian Government” – https://profit.com.au/site/has-auda-helped-ensure-competition-is-dead/
Ned asks the question “But who polices auDA?” auDA has an ace up their sleeve that allows them complete and total autonomy. Whenever they are challenged all they have to say is that “We are protecting Australian critical infrastructure” This is the catchphrase that will have Ministers and government bodies backing down. So what is the saying about “power corrupts….”?
No offence Robert but how do you propose to become a registrar and take dropcatcher forward as a domainer?
Excuse my ignorance but why does Drop Catcher need to become a registrar to grab domains for people?
If one was a domainer and wanted to become a registrar (ignoring auDA’s inability to onboard a new registrar), there is a process and precedence. One would have to “sell” their entire portfolio to a family member, and all future purchases would be made by same family member, or friend. The domainer would no longer be a domainer and therefore free to apply to be a registrar. The industry has examples of this style of registrar, and although it has been challenged many times, continually receives auDA’s approval to continue in this format.
The existing owner of the one and only working Australian drop catcher platform in the country, the world, the galaxy and the entire universe (that’s an auda-accredited registrar with a direct-Registry connection) has publicly stated in the past that he is a “domainer”, and has bought many private domain names for himself and his company over the past few years, so I guess auDA is okay with this concept?
I’m not sure yet, what I’m going to do, to be honest.
I’m not even sure I want to apply to be a registrar though, with auDA the way they are at the moment, which seems to be clearly AGAINST COMPETITION. From what Cam went through, doesn’t look like they will allow ANY new Registrars to be born.
I don’t have anywhere near the experience that Cam has, so far as running a drop catcher or Registrar, as he has done for many years in the past.
I’ll write an article about what I’m going to do with DropCatcher when the moment arrives.
For now, it technically continues to run as a b-grade drop catcher that can catch dropping domain names “second” for $12 that aren’t being bid for on other platforms that have a direct-registry connection, (as an auDA accredited Registrar).
To answer Angie’s question; Unless you have a direct connection to the Afilias AU Registry, as an auDA-accredited “Registrar”, there is no chance you can catch dropping domains competitively, or first, for anyone.
Sorry to hear Cam. I was one of the people that endorsed you and what you went through with these auda people sounds unfair.
Such a shame that auDA continue to flex their muscles to restrict healthy competition in the Australian marketplace. There may be hidden agendas that we will never be privy to.