Red Tape Around .au Domains

Soldato
Joined
3 Jun 2005
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3,047
Location
The South
Hi All,

I'm attempting to purchase a .com.au domain to help create an online presence within Australia for my company; issue is, without being a registered company within Australia then it seems to be simply a no-go in terms of registering an .au domain as an 'outsider'.

Registering as an Aussie company looks fairly straight forward and from having a Google it appears to be the usual/standard method for outsiders. And while i've read of a few people having zero issues once registering, it does however look to be a bit of a grey area in terms of the company being active and trading and the issue of tax and the usual paperwork that comes with having a company. So considering we wouldn't actually be trading within Australia, it seems like it could end up being a massive hassle or worse case the domain could end up being returned/removed.

Now i'm lucky enough to know someone that owns a company that operates in the same industry within Australia, so my current thought is (if their willing) for them to purchase the domain.
However the auDA (i believe that's the registry) guidelines clearly state -
2. Domain names in the com.au 2LD must be:

a) an exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant’s name or trademark; or

b) otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant, in accordance with the categories of “close and substantial connection” set out in the Guidelines on the Interpretation of Policy Rules for the Open 2LDs.
Obviously the domain i'm wanting isn't directly connected to this third-party, so it looks like it'd fall to section 'b' and the use of 'closely and substantially connected'.

So the question (finally :p) is, has anyone had experience of purchasing .au domains as an outsider? And would it likely pass 'inspection' if a third-party purchased the domain?

Much appreciated for any help :)
 
Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2004
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29,913
Location
England
Reminds me of the rubbish with .uk domains where you can't register one if you don't own the .co.uk version. Pointless money grabbing exercise since it doesn't increase the number of available domains!
 

daz

daz

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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24,073
Location
Bucks
Reminds me of the rubbish with .uk domains where you can't register one if you don't own the .co.uk version. Pointless money grabbing exercise since it doesn't increase the number of available domains!

You can register one that doesn't have a .co.uk equivalent, but if it does the current .co.uk essentially has "first dibs" for 5 years after launch on the .uk version of the domain.

If you ever have to deal with any other CCTLDs like .fr you will actually see how well run .uk is compared to some of the others.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2008
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Deep North
I completely agree that the .co.uk owners get "first dibs" on the .uk equivalent. Why should someone who has had the .co.uk for 10 years lose out on the .uk to some cyber squatter.
 
Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2004
Posts
29,913
Location
England
I completely agree that the .co.uk owners get "first dibs" on the .uk equivalent. Why should someone who has had the .co.uk for 10 years lose out on the .uk to some cyber squatter.

For 5 years!? It's not cybersquatters it's the masses of people like myself looking for a good domain name, there are masses of domains squatted that ICANN refuse to do anything about and now the .uk domains are different all of a sudden, the net effect is that the .uk domain is poinltess because only existing domain name owners can buy it, so it does nothing to resolve the huge backlog of people looking for a domain.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2008
Posts
6,260
Location
Deep North
For 5 years!? It's not cybersquatters it's the masses of people like myself looking for a good domain name, there are masses of domains squatted that ICANN refuse to do anything about and now the .uk domains are different all of a sudden, the net effect is that the .uk domain is poinltess because only existing domain name owners can buy it, so it does nothing to resolve the huge backlog of people looking for a domain.

Yes I agree that maybe the 5 years should be lowered to 6 months or something. Domaining is big business so if they opened .uk to anyone on launch day, anyone owning the equivalent .co.uk will end up having it snapped up by one of these professional domainers the minute they go live.
 
Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2004
Posts
29,913
Location
England
This is why I think the whole thing is a money grabbing exercise that is just trying to extortate money from existing .co.uk owners, rather than to offer new domains to people that need them. All the .co.uk owners will now be thinking ffs, we need to buy yet another domain name to prevent scammers and cyber squatters. And the 5yr rule is giving them plenty of time to do that, to avoid the whiny backlash if said cyber squatters did indeed happen, ridiculous.

If people like myself happen to have the same name as another company, we should be allowed our own domain name as well, all this does is give a monopoly on new domain names to the big companies so that smaller new businesses never get a chance.
 
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