[LINK] Australian Internet Domain Names Licensing Review

[Roger Clarke]

On 25/2/2026 11:37, Tom Worthington wrote:
> Greetings from the .au Licensing Rules Review consultation in Canberra. 
> auDA is a not for profit organization with a legislated license to 
> administer Internet domain names which end in .au 
> https://www.auda.org.au/public-impact/have-your-say/policy-panels/au-licensing-rules-review-2025/
> 
> auDA will be holding face to face consultations in Brisbane, Sydney & 
> Melbourne, with online consultations as well. auDA is keen to get input. 
> I offered to help by coming up with controversial proposals, such as 
> dutch auctions for domain names: you want the name, you bid the most 
> first, you get it. ;-)

Don't give them ideas!!

Dutch auctions are indeed the best possible way to use FOMO to maximise 
the return to the seller on the sale of a monopoly.

You'd be inviting auDA to be even more irresponsible, by advantaging the 
richest and most powerful.

I proposed at the outset that creating monopolies in domain-names may be 
a great way for auDA to self-finance, and for lawyers to make money, but 
it isn't the appropriate socio-economic policy.

I proposed that winners of contested bids or ballots be required to 
provide a landing-page that fulfils a disambiguation function.

Hence virgin.com.au provides access to every losing bid's home-page, 
including that of Virgin Helicopters.  (In case you've forgotten that 
phase:  A Canberra company was muscled out of its domain ownership by 
Branson's outfit).

My submissions, on each occasion, weren't even noted in the reports on 
consultation.  Clearly I failed the realpolitik test.

_____________

> I am here because one of the auDA board suggest I come along. I was a 
> member of the "Internet Cabal" some decades ago, but have not had much 
> to do with it since, apart from paying my domain registration.
> 
> There is no proposal for changes, but key issues the panel has 
> identified in the discussion paper are:
> 
> 1. Domain name monetisation
> 2. Allocation rules for com.au and net.au
> 3. Contested .au direct domain names
> 4. Bad faith and scam registrations
> 5. Complaint processes
> 6. Alignment of the .au Licensing Rules with global best practice
> 7. Anything else
> 
> https://files.auda.org.au/documents/au-Licensing-Rules-Review-2025-Issues-Paper.pdf
> 
> As an example of an issue, companies can make money selling domain names 
> for whatever they think the buyer will pay. Through auDA the public only 
> gets a small fixed amount of this. Perhaps, like mining royalties, there 
> should be a share, based on value, going to the public.
> 
> There was a review in 2018 and changes were made: 
> https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/media-communications-arts/internet/internet-governance/domain-names/2018-review-au-domain-administration
> 
> More at: 
> https://blog.tomw.net.au/2026/02/australian-internet-domain-names.html
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at anu.edu.au
> https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

___________________

Roger Clarke                           mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916  http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd     78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professorial Fellow                         UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science   Australian National University