It is wonderful to see a prediction come true. The Australian domain governing body (AUDA) has finally taken the first steps to liberalizing the com.au namespace. Several years ago I predicted that this is the direction that AUDA would take simply on the basis that there is too much money to be made by liberalising the com.au namespace. This change means that domain name owners will be able to sell .com.au domains to anyone, not just if the name is in dispute.

With a stroke of a pen (or a tap of a key) AUDA has endorsed an aftermarket for Australian domains. If you read the fine print there are a few restrictions though:

1. You can't register a domain purely for reselling later. I think that this is going to be really hard to enforce as AUDA has also endorsed domain parking as a legitimate business model. This means that as long as the domain is parked then it's not purely for reselling....
2. You have to wait 6 months before you can transfer a domain. After 6 months domain owners are free to sell their domains in whatever manner that they desire.
3. Registrars may charge a transfer fee.

These restrictions aren't that arduous and for a serious domain name owner they could almost ignore them. These three restrictions are the major recommendations developed by the 2007 Names Policy Panel and have been approved by the AUDA board to be implemented in mid-2008. Please refer to the following link for additional details. http://www.auda.org.au/news-archive/auda-26022008/

A few other things I should mention about the com.au namespace that I've found that many people have been confused about. Anyone may own a com.au as long as they have an Australian business number (www.asic.gov.au) and you don't have to have a company or business name for each domain. In the early days of com.au there were tighter restrictions but they were relaxed quite some time ago.

It is very likely that there will be a mini-landrush in the Australian market prior to the further relaxing of the rules (in fact, some people are buying up names right now). It's a great namespace and I think that it's likely to grow considerably during the next couple of years.

I've had a number of people ask me who I use as a registrar to register com.au domains. I use TPP Internet that are based out of Sydney Australia and they've provided me with excellent service. I've setup a agreement with TPP for readers of Whizzbangsblog so that they can get com.au domains at discount prices ($AU26.75 for 2 years - about $US25). 

Here is the link for the special com.au discount deal.

So at long last the com.au namespace has been opened up to domain name owners, so go and enjoy!

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