From: Greg Windsor [Greg.Windsor@ditm.nsw.gov.au]
Sent: Thursday, 12 September 2002 2:41 PM
To: 'jo.lim@auda.org.au'
Subject: GEOGRAPHIC 2LDs - Discussion Paper

Dear Jo,

The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales was established in 1966 as the official 
body for naming and recording details of places and geographical names in New South Wales.

The Geographical Names Act 1966, empowers the Board, constituted under the Act, to inter 
alia, assign names to places, to investigate and determine the form, spelling, meaning, 
pronunciation, origin and history of any geographical name and the application of such 
name with regard to position, extent or otherwise.

The Board has expressed its commitment to a fair an equitable system for the allocation 
of geographic domain names on several previous occasions. The Board believes that the 
proposal raised by OCOS and the subsequent paper relating to this submission presented 
on the auDA web page addresses most of the concerns relating to the misuse of these names.

The Board would however take issue on the following comment presented in the discussion 
paper, that is:

"Geographic names in other 2LDs. At present geographic names are not permitted in com.au 
or net.au, although they are permitted in all other .au 2LDs. The Panel's view is that 
there would be grounds for removing the prohibition in com.au and net.au, should the 
auDA Board approve the proposal for community-based geographic domain names." 

The system proposed by OCOS allows the community the power to use their name in a manner 
that reflects the issues, concerns and  interests of most of its members. If the reserve 
listing is lifted, organisations that purchase these community names in the .com and 
.net environment are under no obligation to represent these community interests and in 
fact may even publish material contrary to the community interest. As this is the case, 
it would be totally unacceptable if the community is made to compete against other 
commercial organisations in a .com or .net environment who have the rights to use that 
community's name.

The Board believes that the basic right of the community to own its name should be 
respected. This right has been realised both in the area of trade marking and to date 
in the .au namespace for domain naming. As this is the case, the Board would strongly 
oppose any moves to remove the reserve list that was put in place back in 1998 by CGNA 
and the then authority in charge of domain naming in Australia, Melbourne IT.

Lastly, I would like to emphasise that the listing of postcode names produced by 
Australia Post is not the definitive listing of placenames within Australia. Every 
State and Territory within Australia has a compiled register of placenames for their 
own jurisdiction. These names have been assigned by way of legislation and have formally 
been recognised through notification in each State / Territory Government's Gazette.

A definitive listing for place names for NSW can be found at:

www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/geog/search/gnr_websearch.display

Whilst a definitive listing for place names for Australia can be found at:

http://www.auslig.gov.au/mapping/names/natgaz.htm

Yours Sincerely

Greg Windsor
Secretary of the 
GEOGRAPHICAL
NAMES BOARD
OF NEW SOUTH WALES