Domain Names Australia to face ACCC in Melbourne court
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has
formally taken court action against Domain Names Australia
(DNA) and its director for alleged breaches of the Trade
Practices Act related to mailouts to domain name holders.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/ebusiness/story/0,2000048590,20279313,00.htm

http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=2&Art_ID=15649

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7439134%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/03/1064988381013.html

.au - ACCC Institutes Proceedings Against Domain Names
Australia Pty Ltd & Chesley Paul Rafferty (ACCC news
release)
The Australia Competition and Consumer Commission has
instituted Federal Court proceedings against Internet
domain name supplier, Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd and
its sole director, Chesley Paul Rafferty for alleged
breaches of the Trade Practices Act 1974. The ACCC alleges
that since from at least June 2003 Domain Names Australia
Pty Ltd has made false or misleading representations to
businesses who held a registered internet domain name by
sending them notices inviting them to register a new
internet domain name which was substantially similar to the
business’s existing domain name and which were styled like
an invoice.

http://203.6.251.7/accc.internet/digest/view_media.cfm?RecordID=1131

Australians auction phone numbers online
Valuable commercial phone numbers will be sold online, in
an auction designed to avoid previous problems with
domain-name sales.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/ebusiness/story/0,2000048590,20279254,00.htm

VeriSign calls halt to .com detours
VeriSign, the administrator of the .com and .net domains,
made plans to shut down its new Site Finder service Friday,
after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers ordered the company to undo controversial changes.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/ebusiness/story/0,2000048590,20279348,00.htm

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7473993%5E15317%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
 http://afr.com/articles/2003/10/05/1065292464768.html

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3556338
 http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60682,00.html

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/06/1065292503920.html
 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/04/technology/04WEB.html

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/5086101.htm
 
ICANN Advisory Concerning Demand to Remove VeriSign's
Wildcard
On 15 September 2003, VeriSign unilaterally instituted a
number of changes to the .com and .net Top Level Domain
zones, including the deployment of a "wildcard" service.
VeriSign's wildcard creates a registry-synthesized address
record in response to lookups of domains that are not
otherwise present in the zone (including reserved names,
names in improper non-hostname format, unregistered names,
and registered but inactive names). The VeriSign wildcard
redirects traffic that would otherwise have resulted in a
"no domain" response to a VeriSign-operated website with
links to alternative choices and to a search engine.
 http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-03oct03.htm

Letter to Verisign Regarding Removal of VeriSign's Wildcard
Letter from Paul Twomey to Russell Lewis

http://www.icann.org/correspondence/twomey-to-lewis-03oct03.htm

ICANN Moves to Block Site Finder
The Internet oversight organization threatens legal action
to block VeriSign's new Site Finder service, which
redirects users who type invalid Web addresses to
VeriSign's search site. ICANN says the service has
endangered the stability of the Internet.
 http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60682,00.html

Not The Public's Domain
By tweaking the way Internet traffic is marked and routed,
a move by VeriSign has had broad impact beyond where bad
typists end up. Perhaps you've noticed something a little
different lately if you accidentally typed in an incorrect
".com" or ".net" Web address.
 http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=5066&PHPSESSID

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31115-2003Oct1.html

Status After 'Hurricane SiteFinder': Is It Over?
After roughly 19 days of its introduction, VeriSign's Site
Finder service was finally shutdown on October 4, 2003
following a "Formal Deadline" issued by ICANN (previously
reported here). With the plug pulled, the Internet appears
to be returning to its regular status ending a historic
event that can be best described as a 'Hurricane' -- a
Cyber-Hurricane. What follows is a collection of
commentaries and questions raised around the Net in
response to this event during and after the final hours of
VeriSign's deadline.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/300_0_1_0_C/

Reaction to VeriSign's New 36-Hour Deadline
ICANN today has made a formal demand stating: "Given the
magnitude of the issues that have been raised, and their
potential impact on the security and stability of the
Internet, the DNS and the .com and .net top level domains,
VeriSign must suspend the changes to the .com and .net
top-level domains introduced on 15 September 2003 by 6:00
PM PDT on 4 October 2003. Failure to comply with this
demand by that time will leave ICANN with no choice but to
seek promptly to enforce VeriSign's contractual
obligations." What follows is a collection of commentaries
made around the net and by experts in response to today's
annoucement.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/298_0_1_0_C/

Can VeriSign Sue You Over SiteFinder?
Attention so far has been focusing on the ethics of the
move (positively satanic), its effects on DNS and non-Web
applications (Considered Harmful), and on possible
technical responses (Software Aimed at Blocking VeriSign's
Search Program). On the legal side of the fence, though,
we're not just talking about a can of worms. We're talking
about an oil drum of Arcturan Flesh-Eating Tapeworms.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/299_0_1_0_C/

New Trojan may have VeriSign in crosshairs
Sophos' anti-virus team has confirmed that it is in the
preliminary stages of analysing a new Trojan that may be
linked to an organised attack on VeriSign's domain name
servers.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000048600,20279284,00.htm

Network Solutions Introduces Consumer Advocacy Site
Network Solutions (networksolutions.com) today introduced a
new consumer privacy advocate Web site
(internetprivacyadvocate.org) that details precautions
customers can take to protect the personal information
associated with their domain name registrations.
 http://thewhir.com/marketwatch/net093003.cfm

Unauthorised domain name transfer sparks lawsuit
Domain name registry Network Solutions, now owned by
VeriSign, is being sued for $3 million by a software
company that claims it gave away its domain name without
permission to a former employee who used it to hijack
customer payments.

http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=unauthoriseddomain1065005327

Tough issues face Information Society summit
Delegates attending the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December can look forward to
another major clash over several contentious issues that
blocked agreement of two key documents during a critical
round of negotiations in the Alpine city last month.
...
Another prickly subject, almost on par with financing, is
Internet governance, Fowlie said. China and Brazil are
among several countries calling for one or more global
bodies to manage Internet resources, such as domain names,
root servers and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses -- an
area heavily controlled by the U.S. Hardly a surprise, the
idea has fallen upon deaf ears in the U.S. delegation,
which continues to back ICANN (Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers). Delegates from the European
Union (EU) likewise support a private model, along the line
of the U.S.-backed ICANN, preferring not to see the ITU
become involved.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/10/01/HNinfosociety_1.html

Govts mount internet power grab
Some governments have attempted to persuade a United
Nations and International Telecommunication Union-sponsored
conference to shift control of national internet domains to
government agencies and to let a new or existing
inter-governmental body take international control of the
internet. The New Zealand government, however, is likely to
continue supporting the current structure, under ICANN and,
locally, InternetNZ.

http://computerworld.co.nz/webhome.nsf/UNID/4DB2699A01A09D82CC256DB400094579

.nz - InternetNZ sceptical of state control
The head of New Zealand's internet management body,
InternetNZ's Peter Macaulay, is sceptical of governments'
ability to run the net.

http://computerworld.co.nz/webhome.nsf/UNID/A7207AB870DDDBE0CC256DB40009760B

Online Registries: The DNS and Beyond
As the world grows more connected and more complicated, we
all need ways of defining, identifying and keeping track of
things and cross-referencing them with their owners. The
simplest way to do that is with registries -- everything
from the Domesday Book, a medieval registry of land,
property and people; to current-day auto registries on the
one hand and the worldwide Domain Name System on the
other...But now, companies and organizations have to keep
track of ever more things and people, not just inside their
walls but across extended organizational boundaries. Call
this new wrinkle an "external registry". Finally, they may
want to interact with things and people, rather than just
look them up, via an "active registry".
 http://www.circleid.com/article/293_0_1_0_C

.nz - 2LD discussion document released
The Domain Name Commissioner (DNC) has released a
discussion document on remodelling the second level domain
(2LD) in New Zealand.

http://computerworld.co.nz/webhome.nsf/UNID/D37BE0148B0F23F7CC256DB2001757FF

Industry groups still want policymaking body for '.ph'
Three of the Philippines' biggest information technology
organizations welcomed a government decision to create an
advisory body to the agency overseeing the administration
of the ".ph" country domain but only as an initial step to
creating a policymaking body.
 http://www.inq7.net/inf/2003/oct/06/inf_1-1.htm

Register .se-domains with å,ä,ö,ü and é
The Swedish top domain .se will as from October 2003 offer
the possibility to register a domain name with the signs å,
ä, ö, ü and é in addition to the ASCII a-z, 0-9 and hyphen
characters. Current domain name holders are being given
priority to get their domain names with rings, dots and
accents. They must however submit an application before the
21st of October 2003 if they want to be a part of the first
distribution of internationalized domain names.
 http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/newslog/2003/10/02.html#a243

RIPE 46 Meeting Report
The RIPE 46 Meeting was held from 1 - 5 September 2003 at
the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
There were a total of 307 attendees comprised of the RIPE
NCC membership, the RIPE community and government
representatives. Attendees also included representatives
from APNIC, ARIN, AfriNIC, LACNIC and ICANN.

http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-46/meeting-report.html

Reverse DNS Restructuring Project
The Reverse DNS Restructuring Project involves a number of
changes:
 http://www.ripe.net/reverse/proposal.html

=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David§yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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