DomainName.edu.au

September 2006 - Domain Name Renewals

Over the next few months many Australian .edu.au domain names will fall due for renewal. Reminders are being sent out to Registrants. If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of these emails or questions about renewals, please contact education.au on 08 8334 3245.

17-08-2006 - auDA Consumer Alert.

Mass mail out by Domains Australia Pty Ltd

16/Aug/2006 auDA has become aware that Domains Australia Pty Ltd is sending letters and/or faxes to some domain name registrants offering to arrange registration of the net.au equivalent of the registrant's com.au domain name for $225.

The letter is headed ‘DOMAIN NAME AVAILABLE’ and some versions of it offer a free MP3 player with each registration.

auDA has received numerous complaints which indicate that;

despite the net.au name being paid for, it is NOT being registered and
registrants are NOT receiving the ‘free’ MP3 player.

Based on the complaints received auDA is concerned that the letters may mislead people into believing that they are renewing their existing com.au domain name when in fact they are purchasing a new net.au name.

Further, consumers should be aware that $225 for a net.au domain name is significantly higher than prices charged by auDA accredited registrars and their resellers.

Domains Australia Pty Ltd is a company controlled by Blair Rafferty, the brother of Chesley Rafferty. It is NOT an auDA accredited registrar nor is it a reseller of an auDA accredited registrar.

auDA has previously successfully taken legal action against Chesley Rafferty and companies controlled by him under the Trade Practices Act.

If you have paid Domains Australia Pty Ltd and the domain name has not been registered or you have not received the ‘free’ MP3 player and you wish to lodge a formal complaint, auDA advises that you immediately contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) either by lodging an electronic complaint at http://www.accc.gov.au/ or by faxing it to their Canberra office on (02) 6243 1199.

Alternatively you may wish to contact your State based fair trading or consumer affairs office.

Go to www.auda.org.au to visit the auDA site for any further updates.

auDA Consumer Alert 07/03/2005.

Melbourne, March 7, 2005:

.au Domain Administration (auDA), the administrator of .au domain names, today issued a warning to all Australian businesses with domain names, and those likely to register domain names in the future, to be wary of an organisation trading as Federal Bureau of Domain Names (FBODN), http://www.fbodn.com.

auDA has been informed that FBODN has contacted several Australian businesses – including an internationally renowned Australian icon – falsely positioning itself as the global domain name administrator.

auDA understands that FBODN has told these Australian businesses that someone has applied to register their name in .biz but that FBODN has blocked the registration and is now able to offer the name in .biz to the Australian business.

Chris Disspain CEO of auDA said, “As far as auDA can ascertain, FBODN is not an official, or US Government-endorsed, administrator of .biz or any other domain name extension. As such, Australian businesses should be wary of any contact with FBODN.”

“Australian businesses should also be aware that anyone can register a .biz domain name. Additionally, those who own the comparable .com domain name extension are not able to veto the registration of the .biz extension by someone else.” Mr Disspain continued.

Despite FBODN’s website being heavily branded with American icons, imagery and references to the US Federal Government, www.fbodn.com is registered to Michael Goodall – a resident of London, England.

“At this stage auDA and its international domain name administrator counterparts are still investigating FBODN. However, I stress again that all Australian businesses who are contacted by FBODN should act cautiously” Mr Disspain concluded.

Adam King
Administrative Officer
.au Domain Administration
www.auda.org.au

auDA Consumer Alert 03/03/2005.

auDA (.au Domain Administration Ltd) has issued a consumer alert regarding the mass mail out by Domains Australia Pty Ltd. Below is the e-mail being sent to all .au domain name registrants.

Subject: Domains Australia Pty Ltd - Consumer Alert

You are receiving this email because you are the registrant contact for a .au domain name. .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is the Australian company that operates .au.

auDA has become aware that a company called Domains Australia Pty Ltd is sending letters and/or faxes to some domain name registrants offering to arrange registration of a .com domain name for $225.

The letter is headed 'DOMAIN NAME AVAILABLE'. auDA has received numerous complaints which indicate that some of the names being offered are either:

registered already to the recipient of the letter and not due to expire in the near future; or
registered to a different entity and is not available for registration.

auDA is concerned that the letters may:

mislead people into believing that their .com domain name has expired when it has not; or
mislead people into believing that a .com name is available for registration when it is not; and
in either case induce people to pay money to Domains Australia for a service that the company is unable to deliver.

Domains Australia is a company controlled by Chesley Rafferty, who is also a Director of Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd.

auDA has successfully taken legal action against Mr Rafferty and Domain Names Australia under the Trade Practices Act.

For more information see http://www.auda.org.au/news/dna.

If you have received a .com letter from Domains Australia and you wish to lodge a formal complaint, auDA advises that you immediately contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) either by lodging an electronic complaint at http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/3634 or by faxing details to their Canberra office on (02) 6243 1199.

Adam King
auDA

2004-06-21 Existing domain name owners of .edu.au required to pay fee for two year licence.

education.au limited, the registrar for the .edu.au domain, will be issuing a notice to registrants of the 6000 plus existing domain names licences informing them of the introduction of the user pays system for existing domain name holders.

The company will also be launching a new interface (www.domainname.edu.au) which will improve useability and incorporate a payment gateway system to automate the application and payment process...

See the full Press Release:

Existing domain name owners of .edu.au required to pay fee for two year licence.

2004-06-18 New Version of www.domainname.edu.au Website

On 22-6-2004 domainname.edu.au will be relaunched with a new look and new functionality for edu.au domain name holders. The new website will be fully automated with the registry, ensuring all updates are applied when you make them. We will be able to offer substantially enhanced service to edu.au domain holders as a result of these changes. All domain name holders will have new accounts to manage their domains. For the majority of domains, this will be achieved by a simple password retrieval process. However, for domain names where contact information is not up to date, you may need to contact us in order to retrieve your password. The new website will explain this procedure. Advice is also being sent to education and training jurisdictions.

2004-05-06 User Pays announced for edu.au Domains

From 6 May 2004 new edu.au registrations will cost $AUD100.00 (plus GST) for two years. The same cost and time period will apply for existing edu.au domain names on their renewal...

See the full Press Release

User Pays announced for edu.au Domains

2004-03-10 Spam/Virus Warning for edu.au domain holders

Domain Name holders are receiving email from noreply@edu.au titled 'FW: Notify about your e-mail account utilization'. Be aware that this is not from a real email address, is spam and contains a virus. Please ensure that you treat it as a virus using your virus protection and anti-spam procedures. The email contains a link to www.edu.au. This is not a valid url.

2003-12-23 Registrar Operations over Christmas

The Registrar will be closed between 25/12/2003 and 2/1/2004. During this time new applications will not be processed. Details for changes to domains will be collected but will not take effect until after 2/1/2004.

2003-11-27 Consumer Advice for edu.au Domain Name Holders

education.au limited is the auDA accredited Registar for edu.au domain names within Australia and the only Registrar that is accredited to offer edu.au domain names. It has come to education.au’s attention that education and training organisations are receiving correspondence from a company called Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd requesting payment for Internet domain names in the .com domain space.

The correspondence from Domain Names Australia is titled ‘INTERNET NAME CURRENTLY UNREGISTERED’. Please be advised that this company has no relationship with education.au limited and is not associated in any way with the edu.au domain. The correspondence from Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd in no way affects any existing domain names that you have registered in the .edu.au domain space. If you have received such a correspondence, you are not required to pay it in order to renew your existing .edu.au domain name.

The edu.au domain space is a closed domain that is available to organisations within the education and training sector in Australia. As noted above, education.au limited is the only Registrar that is accredited to offer edu.au domain names. At this time edu.au domain name holders are not required to make any payment for their edu.au domain names.

education.au limited recommends that you do not respond to this notice unless you wish to register a completely new domain in the .com domain space. Should you wish to register a domain name outside the edu.au domain, there are a number of companies that can offer this service and as such, it is always useful to perform a cost comparison before pursuing any purchase.

Further information regarding auDA and Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd can be found at http://www.auda.org.au/dna/.

23-12-2005 - edu.au Domain - Review of Major Policies

AICTEC is undertaking a review of major policies governing the administration of the.edu.au domain name space.

The policy for the .edu.au domain was endorsed by AICTEC in April 2003. Since that time a number of policy anomalies and difficulties have arisen as a result of the changing business environments experienced by Australian education and training organisations and jurisdictions. These need to be resolved in order to provide a firm base for the future operation of the .edu.au domain.

A discussion paper on these issues has been prepared and is available for download. Submissions and comments on the policy issues raised in the discussion paper are invited, with a view to providing recommendations on the future operation, application, and administration of the .edu.au domain. Further information on submissions can be found in .edu.au Major Policy Review – Questions

The closing date for submissions was 28 February 2006

Submissions and further information can be found on the AICTEC website.

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