auDA to consider creating new domains in 2002

Posted by Jo Lim on 20 August 2001

The auDA Board has approved the report of its Name Policy Advisory Panel on the possible creation of new second level domains (2LDs) in the .au domain, that would operate alongside the existing 2LDs (eg. com.au, net.au, gov.au, etc).

The Panel’s report stated that new 2LDs would give consumers more choice and enhance the utility of the .au domain.

In particular, the Panel found that demand for personal domain names is not being met by the existing personal domain space, id.au, due to rules which force people to register in sub-domains like dropbear.id.au. The Panel recommended that auDA change the rules to allow people to register domain names directly in id.au.

The Panel noted proposals for a new 2LD hierarchy that provides for geographic domain names to be reserved for use by the relevant community (eg. “bathurst.nsw.au”). Geographic domain names are currently banned in com.au and net.au.

"auDA welcomes the initiative of groups like the One City One Site working party in developing detailed proposals for allocating geographic domain names in a fair and responsible manner," said auDA CEO, Chris Disspain.

"However, auDA’s main objective at this time is to implement much-needed reforms to the existing domain name system. We will not consider introducing new 2LDs until next year."

auDRP
The auDA Board has also approved the .au Dispute Resolution Policy (auDRP) proposed by auDA’s Dispute Resolution Working Group.

The auDRP is closely based on the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which has been in operation in the gTLD space (.com, .net and .org) since 1999 and has proved to be a speedy, low-cost way of resolving disputes involving cybersquatting and other bad faith practices.

The auDRP will come into effect with the introduction of competition.

Generic domain names
As previously announced, the auDA Board has decided to lift the restriction on generic domain names in com.au. This means that popular domain names such as “shopping.com.au” will become available for registration. Generic domain names will be allocated via an auction, pursuant to the proposal contained in the Name Panel’s final report on domain name policy. auDA’s present intention is to conduct the auction towards the end of the year.

All reports are available on the auDA web site at http://www.auda.org.au or phone 03 9226 9495.

For further information, contact Chris Disspain on phone 03 9226 9495 or email ceo@auda.org.au

20 August 2001