Disclaimer: As well as being an auDA Member, I am now an auDA Demand Class Director. The article below is my personal opinion, and does not purport to be the views of auDA.
Hot on the heels of this announcement of the .au Policy Review Panel (PRP) Public Forums, the “Registrant Policy Issues Paper – January 2018” was released on Thursday. You can download the paper here – or for your ease, I have inserted a copy below.
Spoiler alert – this Issues Paper does NOT contain any recommendations as to the proposed implementation models. I would imagine these should be following in the very near future.
Instead, the PRP looks at issues around the structure of the .au namespace, reserved or prohibited domain names, and eligibility for (and allocation of) domain names including what rules should apply to direct registration of .au domain names.
What Are Some Of The Issues?
Too many to mention them all, but a couple of topics rearing their head again are the “Close and Substantial Connection Rules”, and “Domain Monetisation”.
You can read what the PRP has to say on Pages 27 & 28 of the Issues Paper below. These are the questions posed on these two points:
Obviously, as the old saying goes, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”! If you feel strongly (one way or the other) about these particular issues – or any other for that matter – then make sure your opinion is heard. Write to the PRP!
Have Your Say
The panel wants to hear from as many users of domain names as possible. If you agree or disagree on any of the issues raised, let them know.
You can share ideas and comments by email; or in person at our Policy Review Panel Forums in February 2018. Or both! All submissions will be made public after the close of the consultation period unless marked ‘confidential’.
Written submissions
The Panel invites written submissions by 5pm on Sunday 4 March, 2018.
Via email
Submissions can be emailed to policy.review@auda.org.au
Via post
Written submissions can be mailed to:
Policy Review Panel
C/O .au Domain Administration
PO Box 18315
Melbourne VIC 3001
PDF: Registrant Policy: Enabling Australia’sDigital Economy and Society
Ned O’Meara – 29th January 2018
Disclaimer
Curious as how AUDA could not permit domain monetisation? Removing the domain monetisation stuff in the policy would not “ban” it.
I think they’d have to write something specific and given sites like Google.com.au are mostly PPC links I don’t see they’d have much luck bringing it in.
e.g. do a search for loans or just about any commercial terms and it is all PPC links above the fold,
Removing those lines in the policy would just mean people who have to look at other ways to gain eligibility like in the past. Having said that the fact that it seems to be getting brought up every so often should be of concern to anyone investing in this space, .au is not a “stable” namespace and is well below investment grade..
Cancelling domain monetisation could effectively put drop-catchers out of business, and hurt many legitimate businesses who use EMD’s for SEO.
What will someone like OMG do with their 20k plus domains?
More market instabilty ahead.
Jeff