From: Ned Sent: Friday, 21 January 2011 1:35 PM To: lujia.chen@auda.org.au Subject: Panel Discussion - Submission Dear Lujia, Attached is my submission. I appreciate the opportunity to comment and give my opinions. Thank you. Kind regards, Ned O’Meara __________________________________________________ 1A: QUESTION a. Should the restriction on registrants being Australian (or registered to trade in Australia) remain in place? No. The Australian Government promotes free trade principles. Why does the same not apply to domain names? They are a commodity. So yes open it up. Get a vibrant and competitive market going. New Zealand seems to have a sensible approach to allowing anybody to purchase their domain names, and I haven't seen that causing any detriment. 1B: QUESTIONS a. Should informal clubs and groups be allowed to register within org.au? b. Should informal clubs and groups be allowed to register within com.au and net.au (ie. relax the eligibility criteria for com.au and net.au)? c. How should the policy rules address illegitimate registrations, such as the use of org.au domain names for commercial purposes? a) Yes b) Yes c) Perhaps a warning at point of registration that if registrant is found to be using domain commercially, then domain will be policy deleted. 1C: QUESTION POLICY ENFORCEMENT a. Are current enforcement mechanisms in the .au domain space adequate and effective? No. At the moment, I believe there is too much inconsistency. Clear unambiguous guidelines are needed, backed up by appropriate and less costly actions. b. If not, how could they be improved? 1. Spell out policy properly. 2. Education! 3. Warnings should be first level of enforcement to help people learn. 4. Panel appointed for non-expensive rights of appeal against decisions. 1D: QUESTIONS a. Should the fixed 2 year domain name licence period be changed? b. If so, what other domain name licence periods should be made available? a) Yes – open it up as per .com b) 1,2, 3, 5 and 10 years 1E: QUESTIONS a. Should a registrant be allowed to lease their domain name to another entity? b. If so, under what circumstances? a) Yes - definitely. If you own a house, apartment or commercial property, you can lease that out. Why should it be different for domain names? b) As per normal registration eligibility. 1F: QUESTIONS a. Should single character domain names (a-z, 0-9) be permitted in the .au domain? b. If so, what requirements should a registrant have to meet to be eligible to register a single character domain name? a. Undecided 1G: QUESTIONS a. Should individuals be able to register domain names that relate to a personal hobby or interest? b. If so, how should the eligibility criteria be changed to accommodate this type of domain name? a) Yes – open it up. Free trade principles. b) Cut the red tape. Make it easy. 1H: QUESTIONS a. Should .au be opened up to direct registrations? b. If so, what requirements should a registrant have to meet to be eligible to register a .au domain name? a. 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"? b. Should domain monetisation continue to be subject to specific regulation? c. If so, how could the Domain Monetisation Policy be made more workable? d. If not, would the general Policy Rules offer sufficient safeguards to deal with bad faith registrations by domainers? e. Should domain monetisation be permitted in the non-commercial 2LDs (asn.au, id.au and org.au)? a. This is the most vexed and misunderstood issue facing domainers and auDA alike. To me it means that I should be able to buy any domain name I want (subject of course to not infringing on TM's), and developing it in any way I see fit in order to generate revenue. I should not live in fear of having a domain stripped from me on the whim of any person who decides to complain. b. Yes – but cut the red tape and spell out policy does and don’ts. c. Give specific examples of what is permitted and what isn’t. Make it easy to do business - take the uncertainties out of the equation. e. Yes. I am not in this space, but I espouse free trade! Clubs, voluntary organisations, charities etc all like to fund raise, so why not allow them to? PART 4 - PROHIBITION ON MISSPELLINGS POLICY (2008-09) a. Should the restriction on prohibited misspellings remain in place? b. If so, what type of names should be protected? c. How should a prohibition on misspellings be enforced? a. Undecided OTHER COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS 1. The 6 month re-sale rule on selling domain names is prohibitive and anti-competitive imho. This needs to be relaxed. 2. auDA took a great step by writing a blog on their website. However, comments aren't allowed. I think interaction with its constituents and the public would be very healthy and helpful to all concerned. 3. It would be great if elected members should also make themselves more readily available somehow. They are elected to represent us, but I have never heard from any of them!