September 11, 2012
The au Domain Administration (auDA) has released further details of progress relating to a final report from the 2010 Names Policy Panel, which was submitted to the organisation late last year.
One of the recommendations contained in the report was that registrants should be able register an AU domain name for a 1 - 5 year period. Currently the duration is 2 years.
The auDA has stated changing the domain name licence period will be considered by the Board for the new registry licence agreement, which come into effect after 30 June 2014. It says changing the licence period from the current fixed 2 year period would require changes to the registry database and pricing model; which is outside the terms of the current registry licence agreement with AusRegistry.
Another recommendation made by the Panel was for the release of single character domain names for registration by eligible parties. Also taking into account that there was no majority support for this, the restriction on single character domain names will be maintained, due mainly to the difficulty in ensuring registrant eligibility. auDA says the board will reconsider the release of single character domain names if the policy framework changes in the future.
Other recommended changes from the Panel have already been implemented, including a relaxing of the criteria for registrations using the id.au extension, allowing for domain names that refer to nicknames, personal hobbies and interests.
Unlike other AU names such as .com.au, which have strict rules regarding who can register these names, the .id.au extension has only the following eligibility criteria - registrants must either be an Australian citizen or resident.
The auDA is the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain space and AusRegistry is currently the operator of the AU registry.
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