At 19:39 13/07/2000 +1000, Matthew King wrote:

>* Allegedly it was also said by NOIE  that if auDA attempted to play 
>hardball with Melbourne IT i.e. by grabbing the zonefiles setting up 
>new domain categories etc. that they would have their authority taken 
>away.

"Allegedly" - what's your source, Matthew?

Are not the following statements true?

1. Robert Elz manages .au, not the government. Mr Elz's authority comes from IANA and ICANN, not the government. 
2. Therefore, auDA *cannot* create new second-level domains within .au.
3. auDA now manage .com.au by agreement with Mr Elz, and Melbourne IT currently accept registrations for .com.au (note, not .au). There agreements in place between Robert Elz and auDA, and between auDA and Melbourne IT.
4. The current government's policy is to encourage industry self-regulation, and they do encourage auDA as a means to this end. However, the government has *not* given auDA any "authority" which they can now threaten to take away.  There's no such thing.

"Grabbing" the zone files would, I assume, mean breaking the agreements. I also assume (IANAL) the agreements are contracts in the usual legal sense. In other words, "grabbing" the zone files ain't just hardball, it's illegal. 

I think the scenarios you've described are far-fetched and I believe that auDA had and have no intention of doing these things arbitrarily, suddenly and more to the point illegally.

Tell me where I'm wrong.

Cheers

Paul Foxworthy

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