From: Richard Archer 
Sent: Thursday, 14 June 2007 1:14 PM
To: jo.lim@auda.org.au
Subject: 2007 Names Policy

Dear Jo,

I am absolutely horrified at the proposed changes to the .au namespace.

The current system is excellent in almost every regard and any changes to it can only be 
to the detriment of users of the system.

The proposal to allow registrations directly within .au is simply ludicrous. The domain 
name system is a hierarchical system by design, and by flattening the hierarchy you are 
eliminating the benefits of this system to everyone's detriment. Except perhaps the 
people who generate revenue from domain sales, but as I understand it, it is not part of 
auDA's charter to line the pockets of registrars.

I believe the existing policies for the .au namespace are well-balanced, except for the 
monetisation policy which is a complete travesty and a bastardisation of all the other 
policies designed to prevent abuse of the .au domain name system.

Also, the proposal to allow registrants to sell their .au domain name is plainly not in 
the interests of domain owners. There are already policies and procedures in place which 
allow for the transfer of a domain for a wide range of reasons. Allowing for domains to 
be sold only encourages speculators to gobble up the remaining "appealing" domains making 
them unavailable to domain users, except at artificially inflated prices.

The proposed policy changes mentioned above are clearly designed solely to extract more 
money from .au domain registrants and to transfer this money to auDA, to registrars and 
to domain speculators. This can in no way be seen as a positive evolution of the .au 
namespace.

I sincerely hope that these ridiculous proposals are soundly defeated and that the 
overwhelmingly negative feedback for these changes serves to quash future exploitative 
policy change proposals before they even get off the starting blocks.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

 ...Richard.