-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Lim [mailto:richard@suremail.com.au] 
Sent: Monday, 20 May 2002 20:52
To: ceo@auda.org.au
Subject: 2LD proposal



I understand from the news release on Melbourne, 24 April 2002 - auDA is calling for proposals for new .au second 
level domains (2LDs), that would be created alongside the existing 2LDs, like com.au and org.au.

I have penned several times to local govt and got very good response to the following concepts. Indeed I have in 
the past mentioned these to auDA but the timing was not right. Initially back in July 1999..

Now that it appears to be so, I hope that we can be seen to lead the world in some methods for internet 
publishing and responsible content management.

I write to you from Sunny Male, in the Indian Ocean, the capital of the Maldives.

Here then is my proposal.

By way of introduction, my name is Richard Lim. I am a father of twin boys, Alexander and Jordan, currently 
6.5yrs and Hayden 5yrs. My wife Simone and I both have degrees in Science, her’s in the area of Medical Radiation, 
my own in Computing.

I provide a filtered  Internet service to Huntingtower Private School, and recently have been intrigued by the 
proposed legislation for Internet content censorship. Being active in this field my experience allows me certain 
insights to the difficulties of managing such content and the mechanisms by which an Internet Service Provider 
(ISP) provides Internet access and content control to the end user.

We currently block approximately 30,000 Internet sites due to “undesirable material”, from sex and drugs to 
illegal pornography, guns, pirate software, bomb making and various other nasty topics.

Seeing that neither political party has actually put forward a method to structure Internet content, I have a 
proposal for your consideration. I would like to add that having discussed it with other ISPs, I have had nothing 
but encouraging responses to the concept.

I’ve been asked ‘what do you want out of this?’ Well it’s quite simple, just recognition of the scheme, should 
it be adopted, and the chance to assist in something I feel well worth it.

Richard Lim


A methodology for the Management of Internet Content.                                                     
Tuesday, July 13, 1999

A common problem area for all governments, parents and care givers is the easy access by minors to adult oriented 
material (aom), from sex and drugs to pornography, guns, pirate software, bomb making and various other nasty topics 
on the Internet. 

Everything on the Internet can be reached either by it’s domain name, eg www.microsoft.com, or it’s IP (Internet 
protocol) address, eg 203.29.37.1.  

There is currently no regulation for the domain names of sites with adult content., whereas we have well defined 
regulations for the education sector (.edu), the commercial sector (.com), Internet providers (.net), organisations 
(.org) and such like.

I propose that a new category be created for the regulation of Adult Oriented Material called (.aom). Further, that 
(.aom) be given, where possible, a known Internet address range.

Just as it is required now for publications to have a rating system, G, PG, M, R. and that only licensed Adult book 
stores can sell <R> rated material, we should classify AOM accordingly.

This would mean a site such as playboy.com would become playboy.aom. By doing so, it is then very simple to allow 
or deny access to this entire range of sites. It would also be possible then, to determine how legitimate access can 
be provided to these sites, be it by password, credit card number, or some other means of age verification.

The proposed system would be in three parts. 

First, a law needs to be passed to require AOM regulation.

Secondly, the publishers of such material would be required to register into this new domain structure.  The 
registration of the domain names needs to be managed by the AUNIC, INTERNIC, APNIC and other such Internet organisations.

Thirdly, the government then authorises the ABA enforce compliance to the scheme.

It is important that this system be encouraged where possible, so pricing should be no different than that of a 
normal .com domain name. 

Registration of such domain names could be undertaken by the current .com domain registrations. 

If a site is unsure about the nature of their content, they should adopt the .aom domain structure to be on the safe 
side. Simple as that. 

Surely the publishers of such material would be mature enough to make such a decision. I believe the industries 
affected would welcome their own realm on the Internet.

This proposal would have to be adopted world wide to be completely successful, so Internet filtering software will 
still be needed.

This system would empower the governments to punish infringing Internet publishers while providing the structure for 
such content.

Clearly better definition of what is and isn’t desirable material already exists within the Office of Classification 
for Films and Literature, it seems reasonable to extend these well defined sets of rules to this domain.

Content publishers would be encouraged by this move because it finally regulates the industry in a consistent manner.

From my discussions with other ISPs in the pacific rim and closer to home, everyone thinks this proposal workable 
and manageable.

While the Internet booms and its unregulated structure continues to accelerate uncontrolled, we risk leaving regulations 
like this too late. Lets implement this now, while we in Australia are able to lead the world in a new and manageable 
method of controlling this beast the Internet.

Richard Lim B.Sc Monash, Computing
richard@suremail.com.au