Oz dropcatching

[Marcoose]

Other than the odd catch through pool.com or Namejet, I mainly stick to UK but am looking to venture into other country's extensions. I'm interested in finding out more about how you go about catching .com.au. Can anyone provide any information on how it works over there? Is it the same way as over here but with Australia's alternative to nominet?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RobM]

I don't think non-Australians are allowed to register .com.au domains.

 

[Marcoose]

I don't think non-Australians are allowed to register .com.au domains.

That sucks. Another typical sitch where our commodities are a free for all where other countries restrict ownership to their citizens. Is it just me or is that really not fair?

 

[Marcoose]

..... I know .ca and .us are like that for example.

 

[foz]

http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2008-05/

1. To be eligible for a domain name in the com.au 2LD, registrants must be:
a) an Australian registered company; or
b) trading under a registered business name in any Australian State or Territory; or
c) an Australian partnership or sole trader; or
d) a foreign company licensed to trade in Australia; or
e) an owner of an Australian Registered Trade Mark; or
f) an applicant for an Australian Registered Trade Mark; or
g) an association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory; or
h) an Australian commercial statutory body.

 

[foz]

The Auda are very strict (beyond being reasonable).

This is a Registry that cancelled a portfolio of .org.au's as they were not being used for "not for profit".

Would stay well away investing in that space.

 

[scooter]

That sucks. Another typical sitch where our commodities are a free for all where other countries restrict ownership to their citizens. Is it just me or is that really not fair?

What way do you mean?
1. Do you mean we should do like the rest of Europe and pretend to be open but in reality make it near impossible for UK business to be bought over by a non UK entity or indeed even win major tenders.


Or do you mean
2. Like us, a free for all. Open for raping and pillaging.

(We sold our soul. We do not even own our own utilities. Gas, electric, water or our Nuclear Power stations )



I'm for number 1




.

 

[Marcoose]

No.1 all the way. Even Boots is being bought out. So bye bye car manufacturers, leading confectionary companies, utility providers, football teams, etc, etc . And people complain about the bankers and how we should ship them out. Who exactly are we going to tax when they're all we have left!

What way do you mean?
1. Do you mean we should do like the rest of Europe and pretend to be open but in reality make it near impossible for UK business to be bought over by a non UK entity or indeed even win major tenders.


Or do you mean
2. Like us, a free for all. Open for raping and pillaging.

(We sold our soul. We do not even own our own utilities. Gas, electric, water or our Nuclear Power stations )



I'm for number 1




.

 

[Marcoose]

The Auda are very strict (beyond being reasonable).

This is a Registry that cancelled a portfolio of .org.au's as they were not being used for "not for profit".

Would stay well away investing in that space.

Thanks for the advice Foz. You've just saved hours of my life.

 

[scooter]

No.1 all the way. Even Boots is being bought out. So bye bye car manufacturers, leading confectionary companies, utility providers, football teams, etc, etc . And people complain about the bankers and how we should ship them out. Who exactly are we going to tax when they're all we have left!

Green rep for that answer.

 

[Marcoose]

Green rep for that answer.

It's a disgrace. I'm all for open competition in business but it seems that all too often we are the only ones doing things by the book. This OT for example, when Canada, the US, OZ, etc restrict ownership to their own citizens, why are UK domains allowed to be bought by foreign nationals? Just typifies the overly liberal way we go about conducting business in the UK and leaves us at a self imposed disadvantage....

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's a load of examples that contradict ^ but in this economy, when other countries close their doors to practises that are obviously against the good of their people, why aren't we doing the same? China, for example restricting the exports of precious minerals because their businesses need them... we'd never get away with that. Then again we give benefits to proven terrorists that want death to everyone in this country so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

 

[atlas]

It's a disgrace. I'm all for open competition in business but it seems that all too often we are the only ones doing things by the book. This OT for example, when Canada, the US, OZ, etc restrict ownership to their own citizens, why are UK domains allowed to be bought by foreign nationals? Just typifies the overly liberal way we go about conducting business in the UK and leaves us at a self imposed disadvantage.....

This open policy is why .co.uk does so well and the closed policy is why .ca, .us, and .com.au suck

 

[Squilookal]

As I’m active in both the UK and Australian market I’d say there are lots of ways to look at this and I think there are advantages and disadvantages. Sadly for non Australian domainers there aren’t any advantages, end of story. But to defend AUDA a little, from the point of view of serving the (Australian) market, which is what AUDA is and should be about, there are advantages to this restrictive policy.

It does mean that genuine Australian business can actually get relevant FTR domain names that would be considered “premium” in most other markets and are actually effectively out of the name pool because someone from “the valley” reg’d them 20 years ago and wants you to pay $20K to buy them. Australian organic SERPS are also strongly skewed towards com.au sites and this can help keep spam out of the keyword space because not everyone who has a few bucks in their pocket and can work Wordpress is launching smalllightbluewidgetsmelbourne.com.au to hook a few Adsense dollars. If this is good or bad depends on your perspective I guess.

Also if you are an Australian developer/business you have less competition for a much smaller market, this to me is the way it should be. Trying to rank in the UK SERPS means taking on the world and his wife for the 60 million pairs of UK eyes, reaching the 22 million Australians doesn’t involve such a fight, smaller market, less potential profit, less competition. It is protectionist....and it works, just take a look at the Australian dollar at the moment or the way the country has cruised through the global financial crisis.

As Atlas said, co.uk is doing very well, if you measure this in terms of number of reg’s. Perhaps com.au is doing better in terms of how it serves the Australian Internet community.

 

[sdsinc]

It does mean that genuine Australian business can actually get relevant FTR domain names that would be considered “premium” in most other markets and are actually effectively out of the name pool because someone from “the valley” reg’d them 20 years ago and wants you to pay $20K to buy them.

IMO it does little to curb speculation for two reasons:
The first is obvious, the best domains were registered early and may not be available on the market at all.
The second reason is that the measure is protectionist. If you look at .us or .ca local residents and companies are perfectly allowed to speculate. They just keep foreigners out. But it's not like all the premium regs are available and waiting for the small guy either. You had to be in early in the game.

I realize that .au used to be stricter, until recently you were not allowed to buy domains for resale.

However it is important to keep in mind that many TLDs are open nowadays, some like .it .eu .hu are restricted to EU entities but if the stakes justify it you can always incorporate locally.

The general trend is toward lifting of restrictions, the other way round is very rare. You have lunatic cases like .cn but that is to be expected in a non-democratic regime.