Greg,

I am happy to answer your question.

Although it would have been better if you had actually done more research,
and checked further into the legalities of trading as a business,
before making an accusation of trading as a business illegally.

That was the main point I tried to make in my earlier post today,
and earlier, in requesting supporting facts from Adam after he made
criticisms / allegations against Planet Domain, "their technical support team"
and Murray Kester, the Manager of Planet Domain,
that public criticisms in this list should be based on facts only.

If you had done more research first into the legalities of trading as
as business, you would have realised that my business is not trading illegally,
and thus no need / point to make your post in the first place.

I am legally trading under the name Barry Armstrong

Anytime one of my clients writes a cheque it is made payable to Barry Armstrong

To give you some background information, I did, over 5 years ago, go to
The Office of Fair Trading here in Queensland, to apply for and register the name

Australian Websites

or

Australian Websites.com

as a registered Business Name.

I paid $95 for the application which was the yearly fee at the time. After about
75 minutes lapsed I was informed by The Office of Fair Trading
that I could not register the name

Australian Websites

or

Australian Websites.com

as a registered Business Name, due to the fact that there was already a business
operating in Queensland which had already registered the Business Name of

Australian Website Development.com.au

They expalined they could not approve

Australian Websites

as a registered Business Name, because they regarded the name as too similar to
this existing Business Name.

They went on to explain that it is perfectly fine for a business to call themselves
any name and to be known by any name, as long as the business accepts payments
only in the actual name of the owner of the business, and also that invoices to
customers must state for example

"Fast Plumbing trading as Joe Smith"

All invoices that I issue to my clients state at the top of the invoice


                                                australianwebsites.com

                                            trading as Barry Armstrong

                                                A.B.N. 19014619422


The body of the invoice also includes

"Please make cheque or money order payable to Barry Armstrong

and post to -"

Whilst in the The Office of Fair Trading I also asked one of the senior staff there
if they thought it would be possible to register

Australian Websites

as a trademark.

He explained that it would not be possible for myself or anyone in Australia
to register

Australian Websites

as a trademark, as it was a generic, descriptive type of name and under Trademark law
in Australia, generic descriptive type of names cannot be trademarked by anyone.

So, after receiving this advice from The Office of Fair Trading they returned
my $95 application fee and I have traded under my real name as a business ever since.

In the more than 5 years since then I have never experienced a single customer raising
any objection to making a cheque or money order payable to my real name.

I might make the point that if you are going to publicly ask a question

"What name are you trading under????"

it would be best to be patient and wait for a reply,
before making an accusation and making statements like

"and get your own legalities in order"


Regards
Barry Armstrong










  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Greg 
  To: dns§dotau.org 
  Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 12:58 PM
  Subject: Re: [DNS] List rules


  Barry

  What name are you trading under????

  Seeing as your ABN number is only registered as a sole trader under
  your name and has no registered business names. Therefore you should
  legally only be trading as Barry Armstrong not illegally as Australian
  Websites as Australian Websites is not a registered business name that
  appears under any searches.

  Maybe you should concentrate on your own business and get your own
  legalities in order before you start throwing stones.

  Regards


  On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:27:01 +1000, info§australianwebsites.com
  <info&#167;australianwebsites.com> wrote:
  > Larry,
  > 
  > I agree with everyone who thought the issue of the allegations
  > initiated by Adam against Planet Domain, in reply to Jim's original
  > post seeking help on a domain issue took too long to resolve.
  > 
  > ( Due in part originally to the number of posts it took Adam
  > to provide more specific information to support his allegations
  > when invited to do so. )
  > 
  > Let us remember that it was Adam, not I, who, at the mere
  > mention of the 2 words
  > 
  > "Planet Domain"
  > 
  > in Jim's long email seeking help, chose to make the very first
  > post as a reply to Jim's request for help.
  > 
  > Did Adam's reply to Jim's post offer any help? No, it didn't.
  > 
  > It was criticisms / allegations directed specifically at Planet Domain,
  > "their technical support team" and Adam even went on to criticise
  > Murray Kester, the Manager of Planet Domain, personally by name!
  > 
  > It was at this point that a new issue was raised.
  > 
  > Making criticisms / allegations against a Registrar is a serious matter
  > and is messing with the livelihoods of all the people who work there
  > and the people who are Resellers for Planet Domain also.
  > 
  > Looking back now its a little sad that, overall, more time was spent by some people on
  > debating procedural type issues like relevancy to a thread, than whether it was fair
  > or just, to publicly criticise a Registrar, "their technical support team" and Murray Kester,
  > the Manager of Planet Domain, and even arguing whether or not allegations like that
  > should go unquestioned, and you Larry, by saying, and I quote,
  > 
  > "Adam - he simply recounted his experience"
  > 
  > implied those allegations were true.
  > 
  > That serious allegations can be made which then start being referred to as
  > though they were true, is a recipe for a truly unfair DNS list, were this list
  > to be moderated to stifle 2 sided debate.
  > 
  > As Trent pointed out
  > 
  > "The 'other thread' is history and it was self moderated to a degree.
  > In so doing, if just one person took some form of education away from it,
  > then although annoying, it served its purpose."
  > 
  > Proposals of moderation need to be very carefully thought about
  > as moderation can easily become censorship in practice.
  > 
  > I submit that 2 sided debate is always preferable to 1 sided negative
  > allegations - where the person making those allegations goes unquestioned
  > and / or unchallenged and supporting facts sought.
  > 
  > A useful guideline for this list would be that if anyone is going
  > to make a criticism of any person or company at anytime in the future
  > it should be based on facts only, and they should be prepared to present
  > those specific facts, or for example a link to a news article, to support their criticisms,
  > and present them in a timely manner, so that debates are efficient, productive,
  > and provide useful information.
  > 
  > If any moderation included banning all non .au domain issues
  > even Jim's original request for help would have been culled out
  > as it regarded a .com domain only.
  > 
  > As there is not a TLD list where people such as Jim can seek help
  > and anyone can discuss TLD specific issues, perhaps a separate TLD
  > list could be started.
  > 
  > Regards
  > Barry Armstrong