auDA TO CONSIDER CREATING NEW DOMAINS IN 2002

The auDA Board has approved the report of its Name Policy Advisory Panel on
the possible creation of new second level domains (2LDs) in the .au domain,
that would operate alongside the existing 2LDs (eg. com.au, net.au, gov.au,
etc).

The Panel's report stated that new 2LDs would give consumers more choice and
enhance the utility of the .au domain.

In particular, the Panel found that demand for personal domain names is not
being met by the existing personal domain space, id.au, due to rules which
force people to register in sub-domains like dropbear.id.au. The Panel
recommended that auDA change the rules to allow people to register domain
names directly in id.au.

The Panel noted proposals for a new 2LD hierarchy that provides for
geographic domain names to be reserved for use by the relevant community
(eg. "bathurst.nsw.au").  Geographic domain names are currently banned in
com.au and net.au.

"auDA welcomes the initiative of groups like the One City One Site working
party in developing detailed proposals for allocating geographic domain
names in a fair and responsible manner," said auDA CEO, Chris Disspain.

"However, auDA's main objective at this time is to implement much-needed
reforms to the existing domain name system. We will not consider introducing
new 2LDs until next year."

auDRP
The auDA Board has also approved the .au Dispute Resolution Policy (auDRP)
proposed by auDA's Dispute Resolution Working Group.

The auDRP is closely based on the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP),
which has been in operation in the gTLD space (.com, .net and .org) since
1999 and has proved to be a speedy, low-cost way of resolving disputes
involving cybersquatting and other bad faith practices.

The auDRP will come into effect with the introduction of competition.

Generic domain names
As previously announced, the auDA Board has decided to lift the restriction
on generic domain names in com.au. This means that popular domain names such
as "shopping.com.au" will become available for registration. Generic domain
names will be allocated via an auction, pursuant to the proposal contained
in the Name Panel's final report on domain name policy. auDA's present
intention is to conduct the auction towards the end of the year.

All reports are available on the auDA website at http://www.auda.org.au or
phone 03 9226 9495.

For further information, contact Chris Disspain on phone 03 9226 9495 or
email ceo§auda.org.au

20 August 2001


Chris Disspain
CEO - auDA
ceo§auda.org.au
+61-3-9226-9495
www.auda.org.au