Direct AU Registrations Update
I first posted about this here when I was running for the board elections. Now more information has come to light and it’s even more ridiculous. Thanks to Roberta Kaay and his article. Something I’ve learned since recording this video, is that if the domain registration happened after April 2016 you may very well have NO claim on it, regardless of trademarks. I’m happy to come and speak about this at your next Melbourne business event for free (out of town you’ll need to cover travel :))
Transcript
Are you a business owner do you own a domain name do you own a dot com dot au domain name a dot net dot au domain name. You may not realise it but AUDA is implementing what they are calling new direct au registrations that means in addition to dot-com dot au you’ll also be able to register just a dot au domain name. So in my instance I have stewartmedia.com.au I could also, when this is implemented have Stewart media dot au. Sounds good except that it’s useless it’s costly and I have no desire to have a dot AU and it’s confusing for the general public.
The main push behind this change has come from the registrar industry people who want to make money from selling domain names . So the problems associated with having direct au registration are many and the benefits are very very slim.
We’ve been told by the AUDA that there is a demand for this that we have to do this because people want it. We’ve seen no data to support that we’ve seen zero data to say that the Australian public need this direct registration. What it will in fact do is devalue your existing assets and so if I have stewartmedia.com.au it’s no longer worth as much because there’s also Stewart media dot au in the marketplace. People are confused about what the eligibility will be to have one of these direct au registrations and just most recently in the last week we’ve found out that if you registered an Australian domain name since April 2016 you will not automatically be eligible to get the dot au domain name. You will have to go into the Pool with everyone else who’s trying to buy that domain name.
So if you’ve established a business over the last two years with a dot com dot au you will now have to chase the dot au version of that domain name like everyone else and if you’ve paid a lot of money for your dot com dot au domain name because it’s a really good one you’re going to have to pay even more for the dot au when it comes out. In addition to that if two businesses have the same domain name but one’s on dotnet and the other one’s on dot-com dot au, so for instance you could have real estate dot net dot au and real estate dot com dot AUDA is saying those two businesses will have to work out who should have the domain name. And if they can’t decide it will go into a ballot a lottery. It will be a flip of the coin if you like to decide what happens to your business now.
I don’t know about you but I think that’s a terrible terrible idea and the other problem with these direct au registrations is that in other countries where they’ve tried it it hasn’t worked. In New Zealand they haven’t been taken up in the UK just even recently they were trying to give them away for free. Let’s be clear the only group that stands to benefit from a direct au registration is people selling direct au registrations and that’s not you and I. Please get on to AUDA.org.au and express your disappointment at this new domain
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
