Sent: Friday, 21 January 2011 8:04 PM To: lujia.chen@auda.org.au Subject: Discussion Paper Dear Lujia, Here is my submission on the Discussion Paper. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my opinions. Best regards, Emma Weekly 1A: Question a. Should the restriction on registrants being Australian (or registered to trade in Australia) remain in place? No. Australia follows a policy of 'free trade' in all other areas. It makes no sense that the .com.au space should be treated as a separate case. No other country feels the need to 'protect' their online industry in this way. Whilst there may have been good reasons for this policy to have been introduced initially, there is no longer any need for it. 1B: Questions a. Should informal clubs and groups be allowed to register within org.au? Yes b. Should informal clubs and groups be allowed to register with com.au and net.au (i.e. relax the eligibility criteria for com.au and net.au)? Yes c. How should the policy rules address illegitimate registrations, such as the use of org.au domain names for commercial purposes? A registrant should be asked to prove that they that are a non-commercial body. 1C: Question a. Are current enforcement mechanisms in the .au domain space adequate and effective? No I believe that there is too much confusion within the current enforcement mechanisms and too much of it is open to interpretation. b. If not, how could they be improved? Less ambiguity. The guidelines need to be clear, foolproof and consistent in their application. 1D: Questions a. Should the fixed 2 year domain name licence period be changed? Yes If you are running a business on your domain and have invested a lot of time and money in developing a website, you should have the opportunity to protect it by having a longer licence period. b. If so, what other domain name licence periods should be made available? 1 YEAR 2 YEARS 3 YEARS 4 YEARS 5 YEARS All of the above. Or even 10 years. 1E: Questions a. Should a registrant be allowed to lease their domain name to another entity? Yes A domain name is virtual property and just as you can lease a piece of physical property like a house, you should be able to lease it as and when you wish. Indeed, a domain is never really 'owned' anyway. It is merely 'leased' for a brief registration period and if that lease is not maintained, it goes back into the pool. b. If so, under what circumstances? Regular domain name registration conditions. 1F: Questions a. Should single character domain names (a-z, 0-9) be permitted in the .au domain? Undecided 1G: Questions a. Should individuals be able to register domain names that relate to a personal hobby or interest? Yes b. If so, how should the eligibility criteria be changed to accommodate this type of domain name? Registrants should be asked to prove that they are not part of a commercial body. 1H: Questions a. Should .au be opened up to direct registrations? Undecided PART 2 a. Do you have any comments about the contents of the Reserved List, and/or the operation of the Reserved List Policy? No PART 3 - DOMAIN MONETISATION POLICY (2008-10) a. What do you understand by the term "domain monetisation"? I understand the term to mean making money from any domain name (providing it doesn't infringe on trademarks), in any way that I choose, through some form of advertising. b. Should domain monetisation continue to be subject to specific regulation? Yes Absolutely. However, those regulations need to be clear and easy to implement consistently. b.If so, how could the Domain Monetisation Policy be made more workable? It would help if examples of what is and is not acceptable where provided by auDA - perhaps from previous cases. e. Should domain monetisation be permitted in the non-commercial 2LDs (asn.au, id.au, and org.au)? Yes. Again it comes back to the principles of free trade. PART 4 - PROHIBITION ON MISSPELLINGS POLICY (2008-09) a. Should the restriction on prohibited misspellings remain in place? Undecided. I appreciate that this borders on possible trademark abuse, but I feel that this is incredible hardly to police as it requires auDA to make decisions on branding issues that are complex and constantly changing. OTHER COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS Their are elected members of the auDA board who should be representing my views (amongst others), but I have never even heard of them or what they may stand for, let alone had them make contact with me. I feel, very strongly, that anyone elected to represent auDA members should 'touch base' with those that they claim to represent on a regular basis. Perhaps a newsletter or blog which asks for comments or opinions.