At 21:28 9/07/02 +1000, you wrote:
>You can spend up to an half hour trying to understand this MIT price clause:

Ok here we go:

>AuDa requires it's accredit Registrars to pay AuDa  a fee of $250 for each 
>of it's resellers which have not previously been registered with AuDa 
>through a different registrar. Where the relevant reseller has previously 
>been registered with auDa by a different Registrar, there is an additional 
>fee payable to auDa of $AU25 each time the same reseller is  registered 
>with auDa through a different registrar.

So, unless a RESELLER pays a FEE to auDA, who is NOT the supplier by 
contract to the Reseller, because the reseller has to establish a contract 
with the Registrar, a reseller is PREVENTED from entering into the market 
under an agreement with a REGISTRAR.

That sounds like market control and fixing to me.

>MIT will charge the authorized reseller the applicable auDa fee within 14 
>days of beinginvoiced for it by auDa
>
> >>>the most confusing clause in the whole agreement!!!

Yes, to some degree.

But it reminds me greatly of the EGG sales fiasco many years ago where 
Chicken Farms weren't allowed to sell their eggs to the consumer directly 
and HAD to sell them via the Egg Consortium or whatever it was 
called.  This was in the days before the ACCC.

I'm sure, this alone is enough to cause the ACCC have cause against auDA 
because for simplicity, if a person wanted to go into business selling 
domain names from the .AU name space, and they did NOT pay a fee to the 
CORPORATION that creates those names, then it's prevented from undertaking 
business.

It clearly says it's a FEE.  In Private Trade, as auDA is NOT a Government 
Organisation, I think you'll find this is deemed as a TAX under section 55 
(?) of the Australian Constitution, or could be considered RESTRICTIVE TRADE.

Now RESTRICTIVE TRADE is something that hasn't been bandied around for a 
bit.   Considering that auDA should not have control over whom can contract 
with a Registrar, it comes across to me as very concerning.

auDA has the power to RESTRICT trade between a Registrar and a RESELLER, or 
to even restrict a Reseller from entering into trade.  It also places an 
unfair financial burden on a business that wishes to enter trade as a reseller.

Imagine if Hardware Importers charged retailers for "becoming resellers."

Hmm.  Food for thought.