RSSUpdate on 2010 Names Policy Panel recommendations
In August 2011 the auDA Board accepted the final report of the 2010 Names Policy Panel, which recommended changes to a number of .au domain name policies.
The following recommendations were noted, pending further information from auDA staff regarding implementation issues:
- That registrants should be able to license a domain name for a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 year period.
- That, in the absence of any compelling technical or policy reason to maintain the restriction, single character domain names should be released (subject to the registrant being eligible to register the name).
On the advice of auDA staff, the auDA Board has made the following decisions with respect to the two outstanding recommendations above:
- That changing the domain name licence period to 1-5 years will be considered by the Board as part of arrangements for the new registry licence agreement post 30 June 2014. The reason is that changing the domain name licence period from the current fixed 2 year period would require changes to the registry database and pricing model, and therefore would not be able to be introduced under the terms of the current registry licence agreement with AusRegistry.
- That the restriction on single character domain names will be maintained, due to the difficulty in ensuring that each registrant is eligible to register the name under normal policy rules (as stipulated in the Panel’s recommendation). The Board will reconsider the release of single character domain names should the policy framework change in the future. In making this decision, the Board took into account that in the two rounds of public consultation undertaken by the Panel “there was no clear majority support for the release of single character domain names”.