The domain name was originally allocated by Jon Postel, operator of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to Kevin Robert Elz of Melbourne University in 1986. After an approximately five-year process in the 1990s, the Internet industry created a self-regulatory body called .au Domain Administration (auDA) to operate the domain. It obtained assent from ICANN in 2001,[4] and commenced operating a new competitive regime for domain registration on 1July 2002. Since this new regime, any registration has to be ordered via a registrar.
Operation
Oversight of .au is by auDA. It is a not-for-profit organisation whose membership is derived from Internet organisations, industry members and interested individuals. The organisation operates with the endorsement of the Australian Government[5] and with the delegated authority of ICANN.
Policy for .au is devised by policy development panels. These panels are convened by auDA and combine public input with industry representation to derive policy. The day-to-day operation of the .au registry technical facility is tendered out by auDA. AusRegistry has performed the registry role since the initial tender in 2002. In December 2017, Afilias won a competitive tender process to take over the running of the registry from AusRegistry.[3] The registry does not sell domain registration services direct to the consumer, rather consumers who wish to register a domain must do so via a domain name registrar. After the industry's liberalisation in 2002, there is an active competitive market in registrars with a variety of prices and services.
In 2008 auDA changed its longstanding policy and allowed changes in ownership of .au domains.[6] Although the secondary market was initially slow to take off, there have recently been signs of increasing maturity in the .au aftermarket culminating in the record $125,500 sale of investmentproperty.com.au.[7] The auDA information security standard (ISS) is an industry initiative aimed at improving the security of .au registrar businesses, protecting .au registrants and enhancing the overall stability and integrity of the .au domain space. auDA introduced the ISS in October 2013 as a mandatory requirement, with all accredited registrars required to be certified as ISS compliant within 24 months.
Structure
The naming rules for .au require registrations under second-level categories that describe a type of entity. .com.au, for example, is designed for commercial entities. This follows a similar allocation policy to that formerly used in other countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Registrations are currently permitted below a second-level domain, such as "yourname.com.au". In April 2016, auDA announced it would introduce registrations directly at the second level, such as "yourname.au".[8] Direct registrations were due to be implemented in 2017 although an ongoing debate on how cybersquatting would be mitigated led to a delay, with a new launch date of 24March 2022.[9]
Registration of a .au domain is completed through a reseller, known as a registrar, with the registry acting as the wholesale provider. auDA manages domain name policy as the ICANN and Australian Government-endorsed manager of the .au DNS.
Second-level domains
.com.au – Commercial entities
.net.au – Commercial entities (historically only ISPs, but the use has been broadened)
.org.au – Charities and non-profit organisations (historically only for organisations that did not fit in other categories)
.edu.au – Educational institutions
.gov.au – Governments and their departments
.asn.au – Incorporated associations, political parties, trade unions, sporting and special interest clubs
.id.au – Individuals (by real name or common alias)
.csiro.au – CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation)
The .edu.au, .gov.au and .csiro.au namespaces are referred to as "closed" namespaces, since registration is not available to the general public. All other second-level namespaces are referred to as "Open" namespaces.[10]
The direct second-level domain namespace, marketed as ".au Direct" has been made available to the public from 24 March 2022. The .au Direct namespace is intended to complement rather than replace the existing second-level domain namespaces and to provide domain holders with the option to register "shorter, simpler domain names".[12]
Unlike the existing second-level domain namespaces, there is no restriction on the domain names that can be registered in the .au Direct namespace, provided the domain name applicant satisfies the Australian presence requirement.[13]
In 2019, auDA released a priority implementation policy, whereby existing domain name holders may apply for priority registration of a matching domain name in the new .au Direct namespace.[14] Three priority categories exist:
Category 1: Holders of domain names created prior to 4 February 2018
Category 2: Holders of domain names created on or after 4 February 2018 but prior to 24 March 2022
General Availability: All other applicants
Eligible domain name holders may apply during the allocated sunrise period commencing 24 March 2022 until 20 September 2022. For example, the holders of domain.com.au, domain.org.au and domain.net.au would each be eligible to apply for priority registration of domain.au during the sunrise period.
If there is more than one priority application for a given domain name, priority is allocated as follows:
Category 1 applications have priority over Category 2 applications.
Where there are two or more Category 1 applications, priority is allocated by agreement between the respective holders, with allocation being placed on hold until consensus is reached or there is only one remaining Category 1 applicant.
Where there are two or more Category 2 applications, priority is allocated to the holder with the earliest creation date.
Any unclaimed domain names are released to general availability at the end of the sunrise period.
State and Territory Namespaces
Introduced in 2004, "community geographic domain names" (CGDNs), later renamed to "state and territory namespaces",[15] are intended to be used for "community websites that reflect community interests such as local business, tourism, historical information, culture, sporting groups, local events and news"[16] of a local community. These domains were initially managed by the .au Community Domains TrustArchived 6 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine (auCD) on behalf of auDA. The funding of auCD was provided from a ballot of locality names in the .com.au and .net.au domain spaces; previously, any locality with a postcode had been restricted from being registered as a commercial domain name.[17][18]
CGDNs use the state or territory's common abbreviation as the second level of the domain. For example, a community based in Victoria would receive a domain ending in ".vic.au", a Northern Territory community would use ".nt.au", and so on. The third level of the domain must be an addressable locality within that state or territory, of the form "townname.vic.au". Where a name is duplicated within a state – for instance, between a smaller town, and a suburb of a larger town or city – the locality name may be suffixed with the name of the local government area, town or city to which it is associated (e.g. "suburbname-cityname.vic.au").[16]
Holders of CGDNs must be "a legally registered, not-for-profit entity; and [...] representative of the local community for the purpose of holding the domain name licence."[16] In particular, commercial entities and local governments are not permitted to hold a CGDN in their own right; they are however permitted to hold membership in such entities set up to hold a CGDN.
As of November 2009, the auCD site claims 91 active CGDNs across Australia,[19] with a further 115 either approved or awaiting approval.[20]
Third-level domains
The use of ".gov.au" as a second level domain is for Australian Federal government and for its initiatives, while the use of a third-level domain, being an Australian state abbreviation, is an identifier that the domain belongs to either the relevant state government or a local government inside the state. The ".edu.au" is also split up into state-based categories in most cases.
Schools use a domain name that reflect their locale, and these state-based third-level domains are managed independently by the states. For example, a school in Western Australia would register "schoolname.wa.edu.au". Similarly, replacing the state part of these domains, Victoria would use ".vic", Queensland would use ".qld", South Australia would use ".sa", Tasmania would use ".tas", Northern Territory would use ".nt" and the Australian Capital Territory would use ".act". However, after a change of internet services in Queensland State Schools their domain names were changed from "schoolname.qld.edu.au" to "schoolname.eq.edu.au" ("eq" is an abbreviation of the government department name "Education Queensland"). This is not the case for private schools in Queensland. Often, domains can even contain a fourth level: for instance, a NSW public school might have the domain "schoolname.schools.nsw.edu.au".
Tertiary institutions are typically exempt from requiring state-based distinctions. For example, Edith Cowan University in Western Australia has a domain of "ecu.edu.au" rather than "ecu.wa.edu.au", Monash University in Victoria uses "monash.edu.au" rather than "monash.vic.edu.au". This difference can be associated with states having responsibility for primary and secondary education while the Commonwealth has responsibility for tertiary education; tertiary institutions often having a presence in multiple states.
Some second-level domain names are no longer actively used. Whilst registrations are grandfathered for some, no new registrations are accepted.
.archie.au – Host of the Archie information service of the early 1990s. Has since been deleted
.conf.au – Conferences and other short-lived events, now only exists for linux.conf.au.
.gw.au – Gateways and miscellaneous AARNet routing equipment. Has since been deleted
.info.au – General information. Has since been deleted
.otc.au – A mapping domain for X.400 addresses; was obsoleted by telememo.au. Has since been deleted
.oz.au – Historical domain name for Australian sites. Australia's original top-level domain for use in the store-and-forward Internet messaging system MHSnet was .oz. The top-level domain later officially became .au and those domains in .oz were moved to .oz.au. As of April 2011, many subdomains under cs.mu.oz.au and ee.mu.oz.au are still in use within the CSSE and EEE departments of the University of Melbourne.
.telememo.au – A mapping domain for X.400 addresses. Has since been deleted
Registration policies and rules
The .au domain namespace has strict licensing and eligibility requirements, compared to other gTLDs. This "policy rich"[23] approach to the name space, begun by Robert Elz and continued by auDA, has meant the .au domain space has avoided the cybersquatting and fraudulent uses of domains prevalent in other more permissive domains.
auDA has been known to suspend or cancel domain registrations that potentially breach this policy in response to public outcry, such as when the Liberal Party redirected Albanese.com.au — the surname of Labor leader Anthony Albanese — to its own homepage in during the 2022 Australian federal election campaign.[24]
auDA maintains a set of formal published policies and rules which apply to all domains registered in the .au namespace.[25]
Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules (2002 to 2021)
The Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules were first adopted in May 2002.[26] Several revisions were subsequently introduced in 2005,[27] 2008,[28] and 2012 (subsequently updated in 2018).[29]
Under the 2012 Eligibility Rules, registering a domain in the "open" .au namespace required that:
the registrant must:
be an Australian organization or individual, the holder of an Australian trade mark, or a foreign company licensed to trade in Australia; and
conform to the specific registrant eligibility requirements the second-level domain; and
the domain name must:
be an exact match, abbreviation, or acronym of the registrant's name or trade mark; or
have a "close and substantial connection"[30] to the registrant.
auDA rules: Licensing (2021–present)
auDA adopted revised rules for domain names in 2021. The new rules (known as the .au Domain Administration Rules: Licensing)[13] apply to all domain names created or renewed after 12 April 2021.
The new rules provide an "Australian presence" requirement for all domain name holders. To satisfy the Australian presence requirement, an individual must be an Australian permanent resident or citizen, while an organisation must either be incorporated in Australia or hold an Australian Business Number (ABN). Holders of an Australian trade mark also satisfy the Australian presence requirement, provided the domain name is an exact match of the trade mark.
For most domain types, the licensing rules also require that the domain name must be:
a match, acronym or abbreviation of the name of the holder; or
a match of the name of products, services, events, programs, premises or activities associated with the domain name holder; or
a match of the holder's Australian trade mark.
Sublicensing of a domain name is prohibited, unless the domain name holder is a parent company of the licensee.
Domain name monetisation is prohibited in the .org.au, .asn.au, .id.au and .edu.au and State/Territory geographic namespaces. Domain Name Monetisation is defined in the Licensing Rules as the practice of "application for a licence by a Person with the sole purpose of selling, leasing or holding the applied for Domain Name to generate revenue." and includes warehousing or acquiring domain name licenses for the sole purpose of transfer to another purpose.[13]
.au Dispute Resolution Policy (auDRP)
Domain name disputes between parties are handled under the .au Dispute Resolution Policy (auDRP),[31] which was adapted from the UDRP by Philip Argy for auDA.[32]
The auDRP was adopted in 2016, and applies to all domain names in the Australian open 2LD's registered after 2002. All domain registrants and registrars are contractually required to agree to the auDRP under the terms of registration or accreditation, and are bound by decisions issued by auDRP Dispute Resolution Providers.[31]
auDRP complaints are determined by an external accredited dispute resolution provider. The resolution provider is chosen by the complainant. As of 2022, there are two auDA-approved dispute resolution providers:
the Resolution Institute (formerly LEADR & IAMA).[33]
A single domain name dispute may concern one or more Australian domain names.
The decision-making panel comprises either a single panelist or three panelists, at the complainant's election. If the complainant elects a single panelist, the respondent (domain holder) may elect to have the proceeding determined by three panelists instead. The decision is made "on the papers" (that is, on the basis of written submissions by the complainant and the respondent) and no hearings are required.
Upon lodgement of an auDRP complaint, the domain name's registrar of record is required to impose a registry lock on the domain name until the completion of the proceeding. This is to prevent the respondent from altering or transferring the domain name during the dispute.
Panelists must follow the auDRP. In addition to the formal auDRP Rules, each Resolution Provider may prescribe Supplemental Rules, relating to their requirements for format of submissions, timing and processes. Panellists are not bound to follow formal rules of evidence, or precedent. However, there are published practice guidelines for auDRP panelists.[34]
To succeed in a domain name complaint under the auDRP, the complainant must establish all three of the following grounds:
the complainant has rights in a trademark and the disputed domain name is identical or confusingly similar to that trademark;
the respondent (domain holder) has no legitimate rights or interests in respect of the domain name; and
the respondent has registered or used the domain name in bad faith. (This criterion is a key difference from the UDRP, which requires registration and use in bad faith.)
There are two remedies available to a successful complainant:
cancellation of the domain name (the domain name is dropped and returned to the pool of available domain names); or
transfer of the domain name to the complainant, provided the complainant satisfies the eligibility requirements to hold the domain name.
If a successful decision is issued, then unless Court proceedings are commenced within 10 business days, the remedy is implemented automatically by the domain name's registrar of record without input from the respondent.
Decisions issued under the auDRP are published in an archive database.[35]
Domain statistics
auDA issues an Annual Report as at the end of each financial year (30 June). Since 2019, auDA has also issued quarterly statistical reports. These reports contain statistical information about the performance of the .au domain and other information about auDA's operations during the reporting period.[36]
According to auDA's Annual Reports, the total domains under management (being the total number of active domain names) and average new domains created per month are as follows:
The .com.au second-level domain namespace accounts for the vast majority of domain name registrations. In 2020–21, the number of .com.au domains registered exceeded 3 million for the first time.[38]
Other Australian domain names
.au is not the only top-level domain name assigned to Australia. Some Australian territories have their own ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, and therefore have their own ccTLD as well:
As the appropriate authorities were late in recognising the need to manage these, most were registered by entrepreneurs for use as vanity domains unrelated to the locale they serve. .cc, for example, is now operated by VeriSign. .hm represents a nature preserve with no human inhabitants.
Some Australian local government authorities have adopted *.cc domains as a convenient abbreviation for "City Council". For example, the Brisbane City Council uses the domain name "bne.cc" as a URL shortener.
There are also two geographic top-level domain names assigned to Australia in which are used by individuals and businesses within a particular region, they are:[43]
.melbourne – for Victorian registered businesses, entities associated with the state of Victoria or Australian citizens and residents with a Victorian address.
.sydney – for New South Wales registered businesses, entities associated with the state of New South Wales or Australian citizens and residents with a New South Wales address.
Related Research Articles
In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As of December 2023, 359.8 million domain names had been registered. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name identifies a network domain or an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, or a server computer.
A domain name registry is a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that enables third party entities to request administrative control of a domain name. Most registries operate on the top-level and second-level of the DNS.
The domain com is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Created in the first group of Internet domains at the beginning of 1985, its name is derived from the word commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for subdomains registered by commercial organizations. Later, the domain opened for general purposes.
.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union (EU). Launched on 7 December 2005, the domain is available for any person, company or organization based in the European Union. This was extended to the European Economic Area in 2014, after the regulation was incorporated into the EEA Agreement, and hence is also available for any person, company or organization based in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium originally consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Sweden, and Italy, joined later by the national registry operator of the Czech Republic. Trademark owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise period, in an effort to prevent cybersquatting. Full registration started on 7 April 2006.
Domain hijacking or domain theft is the act of changing the registration of a domain name without the permission of its original registrant, or by abuse of privileges on domain hosting and registrar software systems.
The domain name .edu is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The domain was implemented in 1985 to create a domain name hierarchy for organizations with a focus on education. At the time, it was open for registration for entities from any region. Since 2001, new registrants for second-level domain names have been required to be United States–affiliated institutions of higher education.
A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar operates in accordance with the guidelines of the designated domain name registries.
.us is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States. It was established in early 1985. Registrants of .us domains must be U.S. citizens, residents, or organizations – or foreign entities with a presence in the United States or any territory of the United States. Most registrants in the U.S. have registered for .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs, instead of .us, which has primarily been used by state and local governments, even though private entities may also register .us domains. The domain is managed by Registry Services, LLC, a domain name registry, on behalf of the United States Department of Commerce.
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us.
Domain name speculation, popular as domaining in professional jargon, is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring generic Internet domain names as an investment with the intent of selling them later for a profit.
.ae is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United Arab Emirates. It is administered by .aeDA which is part of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority of UAE (TDRA).
.in is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for India. It was made available in 1989, four years after original generic top-level domains such as .com, .net and the country code like .us. It is currently administered by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).
The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a process established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names. The UDRP currently applies to all generic top level domains, some country code top-level domains, and to all new generic top-level domains.
Domain privacy is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. A user buys privacy from the company, who in turn replaces the user's information in the WHOIS with the information of a forwarding service.
In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in example.com, example is the second-level domain of the .com TLD.
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomous systems, but it is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores and delivers database content in a human-readable format. The current iteration of the WHOIS protocol was drafted by the Internet Society, and is documented in RFC 3912.
.music is a community-based top-level domain name (TLD) operated for the benefit of the global music community. It was one of the most highly contested new gTLDs, with eight applicants in contention.
DotCooperation LLC is the Registry of the Top-Level Domain (TLD) .coop.
.au Domain Administration (auDA) is the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain, which is the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Australia. It was formed in 1999 to manage the .au ccTLD with the endorsement of the Australian Government and the authority of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It is a not-for-profit membership organisation that promotes and protects the .au domain space.
The Trademark Clearinghouse is a database of validated and registered trademarks established by ICANN to assist trademark holders prevent infringing behavior in the Domain Name System. In combination with the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS), it is the second significant attempt by ICANN to handle the "Trademark Dilemma". The first attempt was the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.
↑ Alston, Senator the Hon Richard (December 2000). "Report of auDA's Achievements"(PDF). Letter to .au Domain Administrator Ltd. Archived from the original(PDF) on 6 November 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
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