AuDA, the Byzantine body that manages Australian domains have come up with a novel idea to increase costs for website owners. What’s the scam?
The scam is a proposed rule change that threatens to remove the ownership rights for an estimated 2.7 million .com.au and .net.au domain owners, potentially costing Australian businesses up to $500m.
Under this new policy, every domain registered will strictly require a registered Business Name that exactly matches each domain name, whereas previously having a single active ACN or ABN was sufficient. Currently, a business can own several domain names as long as they are ‘substantially connected’ to its activities.
If implemented, every .au domain name would need to be associated with either a business name exactly matching it or a registered trademark. Registering a new business name with ASIC costs $47 for the first year. A trademark registration can easily run into the thousands.
AuDA claims to have ‘consulted widely with stakeholders’ and is now planning how and when to implement the change.
Kim Wingerei is a businessman turned writer and commentator. He is passionate about free speech, human rights, democracy and the politics of change. Originally from Norway, Kim first came to Australia in 1989. Author of ‘Why Democracy is Broken – A Blueprint for Change’.