David

I think you're confusing a discussion of the legal reality of the
relationships between registries, registrars and resellers with a discussion
of the merits of such an industry structure.

I personally think resellers are an integral part of this and many other
industries and add enormous value and choice to the consumer.  I'm concerned
however that the true contractual relationships are not clear to many
people.

regards
jon

-----Original Message-----
From: David G Thompson [mailto:dgt§dthompson.wattle.id.au]
Sent: 14 August 2002 23:17
To: dns§lists.auda.org.au
Subject: [DNS] .au DNS Industry Structure


Hi all,

Further to the recent thread analyzing the merits (or otherwise) of the

Registry
     |
Registrar
     |
Reseller

.au DNS industry structure, there appears to me to be to be considerable
erroneous thinking underpinning a number of contributor's arguments.
Much of this is similar to the also erroneous argument put forward in
the .com boom days that "middlemen" (aka distributors, resellers) would
be made redundant by the advent of the Internet because transaction
costs and in the case of some information intense products delivery
costs would be reduced dramatically.

This is demonstrably not the case. Many on-line businesses employ the
Seller - Reseller channel structure including but limited to Amazon,
Nuskin, and Verisign for arguments sake.

The new Internet reality is well articulated in first rate journal
article entitled "Intermediaries and Cybermediaries: A Continuing Role
for Mediating Players in the Electronic Marketplace" that can be found at:

<http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue3/sarkar.html>

The long and the short of it is resellers play a valuable role in
electronic market places like the .au DNS on account of the fact that
they provide such services as:

Needs assessment and product matching;
Product information dissemination; and
Integration of consumer and producer needs;

in a far more efficient way than registrars can.

Any suggestion that resellers are "redundant / inefficient / not in the
end users best interest" is plain incorrect and ignores both the
theoretical and practical realities. Those who continue to expound such
views should seriously consider joining the Flat Earth Society who can
be contacted at the following address:

FLAT EARTH SOCIETY
Charles K. Johnson, President
Marjory Waugh Johnson, Sec.
Telephone: (805) 727-1635
PO Box 2533, Lancaster, CA, USA,  93539

Regards

-DGT






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