The
Australian Domain Administrator (auDA) has today
announced a further relaxing of the regulation that has made the Australian .com.au domain space so successful.
The new policy means you will effectively be able to buy and sell Australian domain names willy nilly. Previously you were not allowed to sell a domain name (although it did happen) unless it was part of a business or asset sale.
Unfortunately this is very bad news and further weakens the domain regulation in Australia by opening up .com.au domains to even further abuse by domain name resellers, squatters, traffic rings and other bottom dwellers.
Clearly auDA are bowing to pressure from vocal and influential domain registrars and other people who stand to gain from the changes. The average internet user in Australia will be disadvantaged by this move as there will be a massive increase in valuable domain names now sitting idly for sale, unused, or covered in Google adwords. Unfortunately the average internet user doesn't know about nor participate in domain policy making. This move is in line with auDA's history of continued weakening of regulation and I wonder why they don't just cut to the chase and make it the same as the US. What a runaway success that has been.
For those intersted the key features of the new policy are as follows (quoted from
here): My comments are in
red.
- it will not be allowable to register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to a third party (almost impossible to police or prove. And is if auDA cares less)
- registrants
will not be able to transfer their domain name for the first 6 months
after the initial registration (this does not apply to domain names
that have been renewed or previously transferred) (so what?)
- after 6
months, registrants will be able to offer their domain name for
sale/transfer by any means (eg. by listing the domain name for sale on
a domain brokerage website, advertising the domain name for sale in a
newspaper, or contacting a prospective buyer directly) (key words here are "by any means")
- registrant transfers will be processed by the registrar of record using a standard transfer form, and the registrar may charge a transfer fee
- parties
to a transfer will be asked to disclose the sale method and price, on a
voluntary and confidential basis, so that auDA may collect aggregated
statistical data to improve access to market information for buyers and
sellers. (yeah right. Why on earth would you volunteer that information?)
yep this is my dummy spat on the floor