There is a rort going on, and it involves ineligible entities and people registering .org.au domain names when they are not supposed to. They are not following auDA rules, and the regulator seems to be letting them get away with it.
org.au has had the biggest net increase in registrations this year (% wise) – though id.au is now not far behind. March screenshot below – other auDA stats here.
Some years ago, auDA audited .org.au domain names to make sure these were being used legitimately as per auDA policy (Schedule F), the org.au 2LD is for non-commercial organisations.
There were massive deletions then, so maybe it is time to do an audit again auDA?
Perhaps concentrate your compliance weapons on those doing the damage? And educate and ensure that all auDA accredited overseas registrars know the rules! Local registrars seem to comply.
Why should people care?
Here are just three reasons:
- Online scammers / fraudsters can easily register an .org.au using dodgy details (generally through an overseas registrar that is also auDA accredited). They can then then put up a fake eCommerce site. Ching, ching – rinse and repeat.
- Imagine if you have invested a lot of money in a premium com.au domain, and somebody comes along and hand registers a matching org.au domain when they are not entitled to do so. Yes, com.au will always be king, but it does “muddy the waters”.
- With the possible introduction of direct registration being imminent, we have to consider the issue of “Priority Status” – i.e. who has first rights to apply for the .au? If there is an org.au that has been improperly registered, it could “outrank” you.
Here are two examples of not following the rules
There are many non-compliant registrations, but I have opted to show just two – cars org au; and lifeinsurance org au. I have chosen not to give them a link.
Fyi, I have provided screenshots of current “site”; WhoIs; and Priority Status.
Cars.org.au
LifeInsurance org au
Conclusion
As responsible domain investors and registrants, we are required to follow auDA’s rules – and can suffer severe consequences if we don’t.
The auDA Compliance team seem to be concentrating on pursuing domain investors and other registrants whilst actively ignoring what is a major breach of policy – Illegitimate .org.au registrations.
insurance.org.au – Travel Design Group Pty LTD (Commercial)
law.org.au – One Community (cancelled)
gas.org.au – DATA FAST SYSTEMS PTY. LTD. (Commercial)
coins.org.au – JR INITIATIVE PTY. LTD. (Commercial)
Thanks Daniel. Good keyword names there!
Here’s another one I have just found: Money org au – No surprise it is registered at GD – registrant is AUSTRALASIAN INFECTION CONTROL SOCIETY INC. Dr Cameron Jones. 🙂
GoDaddy do this all the time. auDA is fully aware yet do nothing even though they are the regulator. Registrars operate under a license agreement which many do not comply with. It’s time for auDA to get tough. auDA gave Godaddy $250,000 dollars last year.
Wow – didn’t know about the $250k.
GoDaddy are a powerhouse operator, and I have some great friends there. But as I have written often on Domainer in the past, when it comes to Australian policy (particularly CoR’s), they find it difficult to comply. Loads of examples.
Wow, me neither?? Perhaps this explains why GoDaddy seem to be able to do whatever they like for their customers?
It’s clear that the current owners of Cars.org.au and LifeInsurance.org.au should not own these domain names and shouldn’t have been able to register them to begin with. I don’t know of any Australian entrepreneurs and domain investors that would ever try to buy a .org.au domain name against policy in this way.
I know, for example, Drop.com.au as a Registrar, wouldn’t have allowed these people to register a ‘.org.au’ domain name, however, it seems (as shown in the above examples) auDA are allowing GoDaddy to hand out any Australian domain extension they like to their customers.
More and more examples are coming to light that are leading many of us to believe that auDA may be discriminating against Australian entrepreneurs and domain investors owning multiple domain names, and attacking their portfolios, whilst other real-policy-abusers go unchecked.
Personally I think .org.au should be run similar to .edu.au with its own dedicated registrar. The namespace is not that large and I see no reason for other registrars to complain as the cost for compliance to register a .org.au is probably not worth the effort.
Perhaps auDA could be the .org.au registrar (maybe contravertsial), but it would ensure that it is used by those that it is intended for. The auDA foundation could manage it.
Its not surprising to see .id.au numbers rise, esp when .id.au is the only policy used to approve applicants for auDA membership. “we encourage you to support auDA and register a .id.au domain name, thanks”
auDA is breaching it’s own policy with http://www.getyour.com.au
Time to policy delete
How so Mark?