2007 NNP Meeting - 10 July 2007
Fifth Meeting
10 July 2007, 2.00-5.00pm
Maddocks Lawyers, Melbourne
Present:
Bruce Arnold, Philip Argy, Darrell Burkey, Grace Chu Te, Simon Delzoppo, Peter Firminger, Sally Foreman, David Goldstein, Jo Lim, Andrew McCullough, Jamie Murphy, Holly Raiche, Kartic Srinivasan (proxy for Bruce Tonkin), Tony Steven, Derek Whitehead, Alex Woerndle
Teleconference:
Brett Fenton, Amin Kroll
Apologies:
Kim Heitman, Graham Ingram, Jeff Marr, Bennett Oprysa, George Pongas, Paul Szyndler
Actions:
• DW and JL to draft discussion papers for domain monetisation and secondary market.
Discussion:
1. Discussion of policy rules
a. Illegal and malicious use proposal
The Panel discussed the proposal put forward in the Issues Paper. Whilst “illegal” has a clear and objective meaning, it was felt that “malicious” would be too hard to define. The Panel also noted that a number of other agencies have jurisdiction over different types of illegal online activities (eg. spam, child pornography) and it is the responsibility of those agencies, and not auDA, to determine whether or not a domain name should be deleted for illegal use.
The Panel agreed that the .au domain name licence conditions should allow auDA to suspend a domain name without notice at the request of an Australian regulatory or law enforcement agency.
b. 2LD taxonomy and eligibility criteria
The Panel noted that there are two options for accommodating more, or different types, of users within the .au 2LD taxonomy:
• change an existing 2LD; or
• create a new 2LD.
The consensus view of the Panel was that that the commercial purpose and nature of the com.au 2LD should not be changed, and the eligibility criteria should not be relaxed to allow non-trading individuals to register com.au domain names.
Some Panel members suggested that consideration be given to changing net.au and/or id.au due to their relatively low take-up and perceived unpopularity, however no specific proposals for change were put forward at the meeting.
The Panel noted that conf.au and info.au are currently inactive, apart from a small number of legacy domain names allocated prior to auDA taking control of .au in 2001.
The Panel agreed that the eligibility criteria for existing 2LDs should remain unchanged, but that auDA should consider re-launching info.au as a “catch-all” 2LD for users who do not fit within the current 2LD taxonomy.
c. Close and substantial connection rule
The consensus view of the Panel was against an “open slather” approach to domain name registrations in .au.
The Panel agreed that the close and substantial connection rule should remain unchanged (subject to further discussion on domain monetisation).
d. Verification of registrant eligibility details
The Panel noted comments by registrars about their inability to automate checks of the ASIC database, and the resulting additional overhead and time delays in processing domain name registrations.
Panel members agreed that it is in everyone’s interest for the registration system to run efficiently and at low cost. However, it was also felt that verification of registrant eligibility details at the time of registration is still necessary and desirable in order to preserve the accuracy and integrity of the .au registry database.
The Panel agreed that registrars should continue to be required to verify registrant details at the time of registration, by automated check if possible but otherwise by manual check. The Panel also agreed that it would be prudent to strengthen the registrant warranty statement in relation to providing true and accurate eligibility details.
TS, in his capacity as member of the ASIC Business Advisory Council, offered to follow up with auDA regarding registrar access to the ASIC database.
e. Domain name licence periods
The Panel noted that recommendations of the Name Policy Review Panel in 2004 were not implemented because of the current registry licence arrangements.
The Panel agreed that registrants should be able to license domain names for 1, 2 or 3 year periods, but that implementation be delayed until the new registry licence commences in 2010.
f. Misspellings policy
There was support for the current policy.
g. Domain monetisation policy
Several Panel members expressed concern about the domain monetisation policy. There was also some discussion about the impact of domain tasting.
The Panel will continue discussion of this issue at the next meeting.
h. Reserved list policy
There was support for the current policy and its limited application to words and phrases that are protected under legislation (eg. anzac, olympic, university). The Panel did not consider it desirable to expand the reserved list to include other words and phrases, such as trademarks.
i. More restrictive rules, stronger enforcement
There was no support for the proposition that the policy rules should be made more restrictive. The Panel noted that the trend, both in Australia and internationally, has been towards relaxation of rules.
2. Discussion of secondary market
The Panel held a straw poll on the options listed in the discussion paper (attached), in order to better focus discussion at the next meeting.
Option 1 – no votes
Option 2 – 1 vote
Option 3 – 9 votes
Option 4 – 3 votes
Option 5 – 3 votes
Some Panel members offered equivocal and/or qualified support for a particular option.
Several Panel members expressed concern about the conjunction between domain monetisation and a secondary market. There appeared to be general support for changing the policy to allow the transfer of domain names for consideration in a private transaction, without going so far as to create or facilitate an open secondary market.
The Panel will continue discussion of this issue at the next meeting.
Next meeting:
Tuesday 14 August, 2-5pm in Sydney
Last Updated: 06/08/2007 14:52
© .au Domain Administration Limited ABN - 38 079 009 340.
