the new regime

This page covers the shape of the dot-au regime since auDA's establishment.

It covers -

• registry services
• competition in registrar services
• new 2LDs - enhancing current and developing new 2LDs
• registrants - presence and 'close and substantial' connection requirements
• secondary market

auDA has been actively implementing plans for the new regime, with redelegation by ICANN of responsibility for the dot-au space, release of policy documents and publication of tender requests.

We are reporting on the new regime as implementation occurs.

     registry services

The dot-au registry was operated by Geoff Huston on a voluntary basis from 1993. In November 1999, following establishment of auDA, he agreed to transition that responsibility to the new organisation.

In line with the Competition Model Advisory Panel's final report, auDA issued a Request for Tender for the provision of registry services for the asn.au, com.au, edu.au, gov.au, id.au, net.au and org.au 2LDs. It subsequently has released a Registry Technical Specification (PDF) for public comment. Feedback is available here. A public meeting was held on 2 October to facilitate discussion of the Specification; a summary report of the meeting is available here.

On the basis of the RFT in December auDA announced that AusRegistry (a subsidiary of RegistrarsAsia) had been chosen to provide registry services in the com.au, net.au, asn.au, id.au and org.au 2LDs.

     competition

In November 2001 auDA issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) for new registrars to operate in the dot-au domain. During December 2001 six businesses were chosen as 'test-bed registrars' (along with the existing registrars for edu.au and gov.au) for a trial of competitive registration commencing February 2002.

auDA also issued an Interim Code of Practice (PDF), based on the ICANN Accredited Registrars' draft Code of Conduct. The Interim Code was recommended in the Competition Panel's final report. It was particularly timely because of what auDA describes as "some undesirable practices currently happening in the industry". Community comment was sought on the Interim Code, with feedback posted on the auDA site. A perspective is provided by the draft UK Internet Code of Practice (INCOP).

auDA also sought public comment on a draft Registrar Agreement (PDF) and draft Registrar Acceditation Application form (PDF). Feedback about those documents is published on the auDA site.

A summary report (PDF) of the 5 October public meeting regarding the registrar documents is available.

The organisation also expects to publish a Consumer Safeguards Policy in the near future, outlining additional consumer safeguards that will apply to registrars and resellers once competition is introduced. It convened a Code of Practice Working Group during the test-bed period for new registry services.

On 1 July 2002 the new competition arrangements came into effect.

Information about competing registrars and affiliates is provided on the following page.

     new 2LDs

In January 2002 auDA announced that it had assumed responsibility for the dot-id and dot-org 2LDs, following claims that it was only responsible for the other 2LDs in the dot-au space.

It subsequently established a New Names Advisory Panel - of which Caslon's Bruce Arnold was a member - that investigated whether additional 2LDs should be created. In November 2002 the auDA Board accepted the Panel's recommendation (PDF) regarding establishment of a new geographic 2LD. The recommendation followed sustained lobbying by the NSW government in particular.

In October of that year the Board resolved that the Panel should proceed to evaluate other (non-geographic) new 2LD proposals - eg for a 'catholic' 2LD - according to its understanding of the selection criteria and process as set out in the Panel's Interim Report (PDF). The Panel provided a final report in March 2003.

Its Draft Process for Future Consideration of New 2LD Proposals document - covering "a process for future consideration of new 2LD proposals by auDA on an ongoing basis" - was released at the end of 2002, encompassing a submission and evaluation process, mandatory elements and selection criteria for new 2LDs.

In March 2006 auDA announced establishment of .au Community Domains Pty Ltd (auCD), a not-for-profit company to act as trustee of the .au Community Domains Trust.

auCD will provide support services to communities that want to register their geographic domain name and use it to provide a community portal. auCD will be funded from proceeds of the commercial geographic domain names ballot held in 2005.

Community geographic domain names will become available for registration in mid-2006

     Registrants

Under the dot-au regime registrants must have a tangible connection with Australia, eg as a citizen, an Australian business enterprise, owner of a registered trademark. That contrasts with some ccTLDs where registration is open to any entity with sufficient money for the registration fee.

Multiple domain registrations may be held by a single entity.

As part of "close and substantial connection" policy discusssed later in this profile most names must -

be otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant, because the domain name refers to:
i) a service that the registrant provides; or
ii) a program that the registrant administers; or
iii) an event that the registrant organises or sponsors; or
iv) an activity that the registrant facilitates, teaches or trains; or
v) a venue that the registrant operates; or
vi) a profession that the registrant's members practise.

     Secondary Market

The 'Substantial connection' provisions in the auDA regime and an explicit restriction on resale (PDF) have inhibited the emergence of a secondary market in dot-au domain names, in particular speculative registration of names in the expectation that they will be acquired by another registrant.

That is in contrast to some other ccTLDs and gTLDs, where media attention has centred on claims that names have sold for million dollar prices and profits, and where speculation fuelled the dot-com bubble.





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