Yesterday I wrote an article on auDA reserving 86 “.au Direct” domain names so that no one can register them. I posted my article on Linked In and Twitter.
Some of the reserved names make sense, in terms of appearing on a reasonable “reserved list” or for “names that may pose a risk to the security, stability and integrity of the .au and global Domain Name System”.
However, auDA replied to a number of my Twitter responses and when I asked “Can you confirm these are the words and phrases that make up the current “Reserved List”?, their response was, “Hi Rob, for security reasons, we do not publish an exhaustive list of all reserved names. The list you have referenced provides a non-exhaustive list of names reserved under Commonwealth legislation.”
So, out of that list of 86 domains I published yesterday… how do we know that all 86 of them appear on the secret “non-exhaustive” list?
We don’t.
Recently, Cameron Bell was effectively strung-out and denied to become an Australian Registrar (although he has 17 years experience in the domain name industry) after he spent thousands of dollars and over 18 months jumping through auDA’s hoops… only to be told that the auDA CEO alone, was the one and only person in charge of approving his Registrar Application. And she chose not to do so. For over 18 months.
How will we know if she made the right decision, especially due to the fact that Cameron has so much experience and there have been no new Registrars approved by auDA since 2016? No new competition.
We have no idea.
When “randos” make a complaint against some of our domain names, and we ask for information about who the complainant is, to work out if it’s vexatious or legitimate, auDA say things like, “We cannot disclose that information”. In many cases, this means they are effectively protecting anonymous weasels trying to steal our domain names. Wasting our time and money.
Worse yet, how do we know that it’s not just a policy manager themselves, inventing the complaint against us, or if it is indeed a real person, or vexatious, or legitimate?
We can’t.
I’m not saying anything or anyone is corrupt or illegal, but how would we know anyway?
Then, we have certain policy rules for “.id.au” domain names for twenty years, and then in March this year, they say you can no longer hold a “.id.au” domain name for “personal or hobby reasons” anymore, even though it’s been okay for 20 years. And they’ve taken money for 20 years. But now, at the last minute, just before .au Direct domains are introduced, they pull the rug and change the rules. And start deleting hundreds of “.id.au” domain names from people who have owned them for many years. And the way they are deleting them seems very unfair and disorganised.
Sure, there are some bad registrations that need to be cleaned out, but for those of us who followed the rules, who can we turn to to ask for fairness and extensions to get our affairs in order after twenty years?
No one. There’s no one to help us.
How do we know if we’re being targeted and discriminated against personally?
We can’t.
And now auDA are about to open the floodgates on “.au Direct” domain names. We have no idea how these new “.au Direct” domain names are going to impact and affect Australian businesses. And hardly anyone has registered them in the “sunrise” period (about 200,000 out of the 3 million which equates to around just over 6%). But, get ready, because in October, we’re all about to see what happens.
In case you haven’t realised yet. auDA are, for all intents and purposes, GODS.
Gods of Australian domain names and our DNS, which pretty much means our online branding in this country.
auDA are Judge, Jury and Executioner.
What they say goes. They answer to no one. And whatever decision they make, it’s practically UNCHECKED.
There’s no ombudsmen checking any of their decisions. And, effectively, it’s really only about 3 people toward the top of the empire that are making all these final decisions. And they answer to no one.
Sure, there’s external review processes for some instances, but even then, all auDA have to do is wave their magic wand and state, “we have to protect the DNS because it’s critical infrastructure”, or, “for security reasons, we have to keep this secret”, or “we cannot disclose that information”!
No transparency. And we’re all just supposed to “trust” that what they’re doing is “by the book”.
Again, I’m not saying anything or anyone is corrupt or illegal, but how would we know anyway?
There’s no ombudsman to confirm anything.
After all these years, something has the change.
When ombudsman?
