Warnings of ‘online catastrophe’ in domain name industry

A long-simmering dispute between the .au Domain Administration (auDA), the industry self-regulatory body tasked with managing the country’s top-level domain, and its members has erupted this week, with some members calling for the resignation of the organisation’s CEO, Cameron Boardman, and three directors.

Jim Stewart, chief executive of digital marketing firm StewART Media and a signatory to the letter calling for Boardman’s resignation, said the situation has become untenable and demanded a special general meeting to discuss Boardman’s position.

The auDA in recent months has held public hearings and received submissions on the development of an implementation process to add a direct registration option to Australia’s domain space. This would allow website owners to register a domain ending in .au, rather than .com.au, .net.au, .org.au and so on.

However, some auDA members say the panel has failed to make a business case for direct registration, nor has it fully complied with its obligation to include a peak industry body representative on the review panel, despite repeated calls to do so.

“Business has not been consulted on this at all,” Stewart told.

“The auDA were meant to have a peak industry body rep on a panel going over the .au proposals, but they only appointed someone last month, after submissions closed.

“And the person they appointed works for Canstar…you wouldn’t call Canstar a peak industry body,” he said.

Weighing up the costs and benefits

According to Stewart, the implementation of direct registration could result in businesses disappearing from Google searches, cybersquatters claiming desirable .au domains and holding them ransom, widespread confusion among consumers and internet users and potential security issues.

“Most people don’t fully understand the implications. For instance, a competitor may secure your domain name without the dot com. When the changes come into effect, any company can register say commbank.au or bhpcom.au causing confusion and cybersecurity issues. If a company was able to register their name.au and just switched it on that would be a disaster, you would lose all your Google search traffic,” he said.

“By switching your current domain name (for example ‘.com.au’ to ‘.au’) you’re effectively creating a new website.

“This means you run the risk of disappearing from Google searches. Imagine if you were an Australian retailer, what would that do to your business?”

Stewart said the benefits – shorter, more appealing and memorable domain names, according to the auDA – pale in comparison to the risks. He also questioned the need for the change, noting that more than 100 million .com domains have been registered, compared to only around three million .com.au domains.