December 18, 2012
The organisation overseeing the .AU domain space has published updated rules and policy guidelines.
.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) says the policies have been updated following the recommendations of the 2010 Names Policy Panel.
There are two main changes; relating to domain monetisation in COM.AU and NET.AU and rules regarding .ID.AU.
The updated guidelines now allows for the registering of names under the "close and substantial" rule for domain monetisation if the focus of the content of the site is related to the domain name and the name cannot be or incorporate an entity, personal or brand name in existence at the time the domain was registered.
Previously covered in the Domain Monetisation Policy, related guidelines have now been incorporated into the Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for Open 2LDs (see below), including further detail on what auDA considers to be "domain monetisation".
With regard to use of the .ID.AU extension, which can only be registered by individuals and previously could only relate to the person's name or nickname, the close and substantial connection rule for the extension now includes domain names referring to a personal interest or hobby of the registrant.
It should be noted that other rules still apply to registering .ID.AU names, such as the extension can't be used for commercial purposes and registrants must either be an Australian citizen or resident.
The two updated policies can be viewed here:
The original announcement from the auDA can be viewed here
Policy trivia: the Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for Open 2LDs was previously last updated in 2008, and the guidelines for interpretation of policy last saw a revamp in 2006.
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AUSTRALIAN OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1996
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