Today I make a post from a concerned auDA member who makes a good point.
He is asking that Change Of Registrant information (COR) for domain names be FREE from July 1st, 2018, when Afilias take over the operation of the Australian Domain Registry system.
He says:
Stakeholders remain concerned that auDA management and Board have not in fact improved in the answering of many questions and issues at all in most cases and this has ballooned into overall dissatisfaction in auDA’s management of the .au name space.
A simple example below I have been asking auDA about for over 15 years, is about the COR (Change Of Registrant) costs and fees. The communications on forums clearly show both demand and supply want a FREE easy COR process from auDA and this has not been done.
The hold up to FREE COR is with auDA and with a new Wholesale registry provider starting 1st July 2018 this item should always have been part of the .au wholesale registry subcontractor transition planning and testing.
auDA simply does not answer and does not provide any details or updates on how important items, questions, concerns are being actioned or may be actioned. This is why stakeholders take to forums, media and contact with the government plus demand SGM’s (Special General Meetings – like the one coming up on July 27)
Overall items such as this mean the .au name space is not as easy to have a domain name, compared to .com and other ccTLD’s. Most global extensions have free COR, even the Philippines, which is a manual form process.
Both Supply and Demand have requested the issue of free COR for the .au name space for years. This needs to be addressed and implemented. auDA has failed to manage this very simple item for many years now.
The concerned auDA member definitely has a point.
He goes on to say:
I have raised FREE COR’s with auDA and even the PRP directly numerous times without any proper responses or actioning.
auDA need to get onto this now or it will become a media story and .au domain name Consumer issue, especially once the 1 – 5 year timeframes come into play in 2 weeks.
Most of the current 1543 global domain name extensions have FREE COR and the remaining license period is transferred.
auDA has failed to update its processes and policy on this. It creates unneeded extra red tape for supply and demand.
The security aspects of FREE COR and remaining period of license being transferred to the new registrant have been handled with other extensions since domains names started.
There are indeed some good points here.
It’s interesting when he talks about “remaining license period is transferred”.
For example, if someone has renewed their domain name for 2 years, just recently, and they sell the domain name to someone after July 1st (in a couple of weeks), and that new owner registers the domain name for 5 years, then auDA and the Registrar basically make 7 years worth of Renewal money but only have to supply the domain name for 5 years.
The current COR-fee system doesn’t really seem fair, does it?
“free Cor is a great idea, it will save us and our clients a lot of money. We buy domains for our clients when we build their sites a lot of them time.” auDA Registrar
____________
“COR’s are a pain in the ass for us, we need to train staff, need to answer about a billion questions/complaints from Registrants, we either need to allocate resources to a manual process, or invest development time to build automated systems. Even with an automated process some registrants still want to use a manual process as they don’t have or don’t want to use a credit card.
There are very few COR’s on a monthly basis, the ones we do would represent about 0.000001% of our monthly gross revenue.
So I’d **much** rather we just went in line with gTLD’s where users can update their own Registrant contact. We provide the interface and that’s the end of our involvement. I can’t imagine there is a Registrar out there thinking they are going to make money out of COR’s. Generally a high cost of COR isn’t reflective of a cash grab but a deterrent to actually having to do the bloody things.” Brett Fenton Melbourne IT Group auDA Registrar
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/transfer-ownership-godaddy-registered-name-72190.html
Your concerned auDA Member seems to have his/her understanding the costs of COR and auDA policy somewhat muddled.
Currently auDA does not charge for a COR. Under current policy when a COR occurs it is a requirement that a new 2 year domain licence is issued. This results in a cost associated with the domain licence not in the actual COR itself. Registrars may charge a fee for their service to recuperate their administration costs, just like any other business.
The PRP (Policy Review Panel) in their Interim Report has made the following statement regarding Change of Registrant.
Basically this means that a new licence would no longer have to be issued, so no longer a licence fee and thus potentially free COR. If a Registrar or Reseller wishes to charge for providing it’s service is up to them and comes down to a competitive marketplace.
Thanks for your input, Ian.
So, this looks like it is the Registrars that need to be passing on the remaining fee? If they choose?
Does this response clear this up for you, Chris?
So will it be available from 1st July 2018 and if not why not?
Can auDA pull their fingers out and include it in one of their Board meetings to pass so it is ready to go?
If someone registers a name for 5 years paying up front 1st July 2018 with the new Afilias wholesale registry provider and then in 3,6,12 months they sell the name they need to know the remaining license period will be transferred without any excessive old red tape of additional wasted costs.
Of course auDA and other will love to make the extra $$ profits so Consumers need to know they will not delay it further.
There is no excuses for auDA Management, auDA Board to delay this and not get Afilias and Registrars up to speed on it so they also can test their systems to be in time for 1st July 2018.
They have known about Afilias and new wholesale registry for a long time, have had the PRP going for a long time and had a lot of available auDA Board meetings and Board get togethers to get it done.
Things like this should take preference over auDA Board spending their focus and meeting time conspiring and pushing for their own pay rises of up to $170,000 which members will vote on at the AGM possibly.
https://www.itwire.com/strategy/82986-auda-directors-vote-to-give-themselves-pay-rises.html
https://www.dntrade.com.au/threads/auda-directors-vote-to-give-themselves-pay-rise.11917/