auDA to auction rare domain names - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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auDA to auction rare domain names

By Vivienne Fisher, ZDNet Australia
December 18, 2001
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/auDA-to-auction-rare-domain-names/0,139023166,120262455,00.htm

Domain names which in the past have been unavailable, such as shopping.com.au and sport.com.au, will be up for auction as part of the auDA's new Domain Name Policy.

auDA, the administrator of .au domain names, has launched an auction process for 3006 domain names which were previously classified as generic, and therefore unavailable to businesses.

Stuff.com.au has been contracted to manage the application and auction process for auDA.

auDA CEO Chris Disspain said a market-based allocation system was seen to be the best option to prevent what he described as a landrush, and to make sure there was a fair and equitable outcome.

Closing date for applications is January 31 next year. Applicants are able to check whether a domain name is available at www.stuff.com.au/auda.asp. This list doesn't include geographic names, because the prohibition on their use remains in place until auDA has completed a policy review, due for next year.

Successful applicants will be able to use their domain name once a new domain name policy is introduced by auDA. Disspain was uanble to put a date on when this would be completed, but anticipates it's likely to be by mid 2002. He said it would depend on when the test bed process was completed.