Re: [DNS] au.com / com.au

Re: [DNS] au.com / com.au

From: Giles Donovan <giles§netregistry.au.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 19:11:00 +1000
Hi Kim

Thank you for bringing the remarks of Clive Flory to the list.

For the benefit of the list, INA issued a press release on 5 Oct claiming a number of issues.

1. Customers are confused about domain names and which ones should be registered by their business
2. Customers are not being told au.com is a privately held domain name
3. NetRegistry use a quote from Jon Postel in their advertising that is out of context, misleading customers
4. People selling au.com have claimed that "com.au is full"
5. Customers are confused that au.com and com.au are very similar
6. com.au is "the only <underlined> official Internet space for Australian business"

Like Kim, I would have to disagree that com.au is the only domain for Australian businesses. According to NSI, com registration are nearly as high as com.au and rose 12% last month, compared to those in August. Not to mention the net.au's, org.au's etc.

I feel particularly offended that we should be accused of saying com.au is full, after all I believe we are INA's second largest client and provide pages of information on our website on the merits of com.au, au.com and other domain endings. 

Our quote from Jon Postel is far from out of context. In answer to the question, "We would also welcome your views on .au.com", Jon replied "I do think that alternative names should be available, so I do encourage the development of the "au.com" domain." As per our advert.

Customers are confused about au.com/com.au. I don't think is surprising, after all most customers are confused about domain names full stop! That's why pages of FAQ are needed. A particular short coming of the INA website :-(.

>From NetRegistry's perspective I would prefer that INA didn't confuse the press with this sort of mis-information, particularly when it targets a big customer who is left with little recourse but to take it on the chin and keep sending them customers. 

I will say that Clive's concerns about au.com being a private domain are reasonable. Both Kerry Henry and Gary Rice (x-Seven network CEO), both of Clickon Australia, have been talking to us about regulation of this domain authority. For those that don't know, Clickon is a multi-million dollar e-commerce project that uses 1,300 generic au.com domains to allow customers an easy way of finding content. We're all agreed that au.com should be structured in a manner that regulates it's adminstration and submissions are being made to the relevant government authorities. You can be assured that this issue will be resolved.

Clive. We are not a threat to your business! We sell a lot of your product, we advertise it more than anyone else. If you've got an issue with our business and the way we do it, our telephone number is 02 9699 6099!! 

Giles


At 16:21 15/10/98 +0800, you wrote:
>
>>From B&T Weekly:
>
>> INTERNET Names Australia (INA) has issued a warning about rival 
>> Internet space provider and owners of the au.com space, Net 
>> Registry, claiming the company is “confusing the marketplace” 
>> with misleading information.  
>>
>> INA is a division of Melbourne IT and is the registrar of the 
>> com.au domain, the official space for Australian Net names. Clive 
>> Flory, general manager of INA, said the number of queries from 
>> consumers confused about the au.com space had risen dramatically 
>> in recent months following advertising by NetRegistry.
>>
>> “INA has received numerous calls from consumers who are genuinely 
>> baffled by what name they should register their business under,” 
>> Flory said. 
>
>Does anyone have any information about this warning? INA's website
>doesn't appear to have anything..
>
>It seems to me the most misleading thing referred to in this article 
>is the fact it says com.au is "the official space for Australian Net 
>names." Really?
>
>>From what I can gather, it just sounds like sour grapes - but I'd
>be interested to see if there is more to it...
>
>kim
>
>--
>This article is not to be reproduced or quoted beyond this forum without
>express permission of the author.  You don't know who really wrote it.
>153 subscribers. Archived at http://lists.waia.asn.au/list/dns (dns/dns)
>Email "unsubscribe" to dns-request&#167;waia.asn.au to be removed.
>
>
>

_____________________________________________
Giles Donovan
Communications Director
NetRegistry Pty Limited    
email:  giles&#167;netregistry.au.com
Office:  +61-(0)2-9699 6099
Fax:      +61-(0)2-9699 6088
http://www.netregistry.au.com
NetRegistry Pty Ltd, PO Box 2088, Sydney, NSW 1043 Australia 
_____________________________________________

		
	
Received on Thu Oct 15 1998 - 17:15:24 UTC

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