auDA Hits Back - Tries To Justify and Down Play The Accepted Policy Changes
After The Australian news published an article on the proposed policy changes:
https://lnkd.in/gKyQ-G6b
Petition started/supported by the Registrars has over 1,000 signatures requesting auDA to not make this change here:
https://lnkd.in/gvF9RW5D
In response auDA released their own statement:
https://lnkd.in/gBxqfvCa
"we expect most registrants will already satisfy the proposed allocation"
Trying to downplay the impact here, when the data is clear:
80% of existing registrants will be affected only 20% will not need to do anything.
You can check where your domains falls here:
https://lnkd.in/gChPuK25
2.7 million domains will need to do ONE of these things to meet the new policy:
1. If they have an existing Business Name that passes the other rules, will just need to contact their Registrar and perform a Change of Registrant
OR
2. If they do NOT have an existing Business Name that matches one of the other eligibility requirements, they will need to go to ASIC and register a new Business Name and THEN contact their Registrar and perform a Change of Registrant.
Examples of each case:
1.
girl.com.au - Registered 25 Years Ago
Current Eligibility is under:
Trillion.com Pty Ltd parent company
which happens to have a Business Name "
GIRL.COM.AU"
the domain owner will need to reach out to their Registrar and pay for a Correction/Change of Registrant to maintain eligibility.
2.
gold.com.au - Registered 29 Years Ago
Will need to go to ASIC to pay $47 per year for a new Business Name with the word "GOLD" in it to be eligible and then contact their Registrar and pay to do a Change of Registrant.
auDA claims that a Correction is free, so that there will not be a cost to clients, technically that is true but what they don't tell you is that in reality, Registrars will not do free corrections and for good reason and instead will use the paid for Change of Registrant pathway to make these changes.
Corrections are for mistakes and done rarely by Registrars as they require a Tech that has high level access and database access to perform changes in the database. Instead Registrars will use the common fee based Change of Registrant pathway to make these changes to the domains.
A Change of Registrant costs the Registrar $9.50
The break up of this is around
$6.00 goes to auDA
$3.50 goes to the Registry - Identity Digital
Registrars then charge a margin anywhere from $1.00 to $60.00
auDA stands to make a nice $16.2 million windfall from this policy change 2.7 Million domains x $6. A nice return for a policy change.
We urge auDA to keep section (f) of the policy. No confusing grandfather options either.