From: Mark McCormick 
Sent: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 11:20 AM
To: jo.lim@auda.org.au
Subject: auDA Policy on Restriction of Geographic Names

In reply to your request for public response to the review of auDA policy on the 
restriction of geographic names and as a committee member of Bathurst Community 
Website Inc. as well as a local Bathurst business operator and web developer, I 
would like to make the following comments.

I am strongly in favour of retaining the restriction on geographic names in .com.au 
and .net.au.

With the decision to open a new name space already made and partially implemented 
I see the original policy to restrict registration of geographic names in .com.au 
and .net.au as more important than ever. With a number of communities in the process 
of attempting to meet the stringent requirements to qualify for the new domain names 
a reversal of policy in the .com.au and .net.au. name space would undermine that 
effort and reflect a lack of commitment by auDA to the One City One Site project.

Should geographic names in the .com.au and .net.au name space become available the 
value of any community based 2LDs would be eroded as the more recognisable .com.au 
variant came into use. Given that determining a policy for the eligibility criteria 
of the new 2LDs has proven difficult enough for auDA, surely setting eligibility 
requirements for the .com.au and .net.au variants and ensuing commercial involvement 
would be just as hard if not more difficult.

I would like to refer you to auDA's own statement at http://www.auda.org.au/domains/geographic-2LDs/ 
which highlights just why the decision to introduce the new 2LDs was so important. 

"In November 2002, auDA announced that it would create eight new second level domains 
(2LDs) for Australian states and territories - act.au, nsw.au, nt.au, qld.au, sa.au, 
tas.au, vic.au, wa.au - in order to preserve Australian geographic names for use by the 
relevant community."

Preserving Australian geographic names for use by the relevant community, isn't that what 
this is all about? Given that the purpose of .com.au and .net.au names is to serve 
commercial entities (see http://www.auda.org.au/domains/au-domains/) using geographic 
names in that space hardly supports a community based usage and reflects a contradiction 
in existing auDA policy.

I recognise that there are financial incentives to release geographic names in .com.au 
and .net.au and this financial aspect is part of the reason that a not for profit 
community organisation is unlikely to be able to compete with a commercial entity 
promoting the same geographic name in a name space with a higher profile. 

Please ensure that geographic names are protected for community use now and in the 
future.
regards,

Mark McCormick