.au

This article deals with the top-level domain .au, for the file format see Au (file format) .

Top-level domain .au
introduction	March 5, 1986
category	country-specific
Registry	auDA
Award	unrestricted
number	3.1 million (as of September 2017)

.au is the country-specific top-level domain for Australia . It was introduced on March 5, 1986 , making it one of the oldest top-level domains. The .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA for short) based in Carlton (Victoria) is responsible for the administration. Until August 2001, .au was organized by the University of Melbourne .

history

.au initially only allowed private individuals and companies based in the country to register a domain. As early as 2007, however, a commission called the Names Policy Panel was set up to examine the possibilities for foreigners . Ultimately, the award criteria were only minimally changed, so that no residence or branch is required, but a trademark registered in Australia also entitles the holder to register an .au domain. Compliance with the guidelines was repeatedly and strictly checked by the auDA, for example in 2009 in the .org.au area .

For a long time auDA had also blocked numerous geographical .au domains, they could not be registered, not even by the relevant regional authority . In spring 2005 this practice was changed and the domains that were now available were raffled. As a result, the Community Geographic Domain Name Initiative was launched in 2008 , which promoted the systematic use of the country code in the style of stadt.bundesland.au .

In 2008, the rules for .au were liberalized again to allow address trading. Until then, it was forbidden to auction .au domains on Sedo, for example . Since then, registration only for the purpose of selling an .au domain has been permitted. In 2011, the ban, which was initially relaxed, was completely lifted, and expired .au domains can now also be re-registered by third parties without waiting.

properties

In total, an .au domain can be between three and 63 characters long, the allocation takes up to two weeks and is therefore slower than average compared to other top-level domains. Addresses are assigned from both the second and third level. The following second-level domains exist :

• .asn.au for non-profit organizations
• .com.au for commercial companies
• .csiro.au for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
• .edu.au for educational institutions
• .gov.au for the Australian Government
• .id.au for private individuals
• .net.au for Internet service providers
• .org.au for other organizations
• .conf.au for conferences. The only remaining website is linux.conf.au .
• .info.au for general information.

The extension .oz.au is a relic from the time when the universities were directly connected and exchanged files directly via UUCP . At that time .oz was used as the domain, when the top-level domain .au was created, the existing pages were moved to .oz.au. To date, some university websites remain under .oz.au.

Others

In 2011, tried BMW a .au domain through the arbitration of WIPO to obtain. Ultimately, an obligation to surrender bmwdiscounts.com.au , which the automaker saw as being due to an infringement of its trademark rights , was negated by WIPO. The case is gaining greater international recognition.

At the end of 2013, the registry announced that it would also publish details such as telephone numbers and email addresses of owners of .au domains in the future , which has not yet been the case.

criticism

In 2007, the top-level domain came under fire after the auDA announced wildcards in the domain name system . They redirect the caller of unregistered .au domains to a page with advertising instead of displaying a regular error message. Experts saw this as an impermissible technical intervention.

Web links

• Official website of the auDA registry

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Delegation Record for .AU. IANA, accessed July 17, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Report on Request for Redelegation of the .au Top-Level Domain. IANA, August 31, 2001, accessed July 17, 2013 . 
3. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .au, .za and .tel. In: domain-right. May 28, 2007, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “In addition, auDA is putting the entire registration conditions up for discussion and examining which changes should be considered sensible. .Au addresses could also be of interest to domain dealers for the first time, as the ban on sales should also fall. " 
4. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .au, .eu and .bayern. In: domain-right. September 28, 2011, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “The restriction that the registration of .com.au or .net.au domains is reserved exclusively for persons and companies based in or with a valid trademark from Australia remains in place . In view of a registration period of usually 8-15 working days, you also have to be patient before you can own an .au domain in this case. " 
5. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .au, .ru and .fi. In: domain-right. May 12, 2009, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “The Australian domain administration auDA has announced that it will check all registrations under the subdomain .org.au for compliance with the registration conditions. This ending is reserved for non-profit organizations, especially non-profit associations that must also be based in Australia. " 
6. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .au, .pk and .vn. In: domain-right. May 24, 2005, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “The Australian domain administration auDA (.au Domain Administration Ltd.) has decided to raffle a large number of previously blocked geographic domains such as williamstownnorth.com.au. The general registration rules apply to participation in the raffle, with separate rules applying below the ten official subdomains such as .com.au or .net.au. " 
7. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .cz, .bg and .au. In: domain-right. December 9, 2008, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “The Community Geographic Domain Name Initiative has committed itself to the goal of local authorities registering more .au domains in order to make the country code even more popular. The domains are structured according to the principle stadt.bundesland.au, examples are broome.wa.au or buderim.qld.au. " 
8. ↑ Daniel Dingeldey: Australia opens up to trade. In: domain-right. March 5, 2008, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “So far, Australian .au domains are not allowed to be traded. […] Now auDA, the Australian domain administration, has thought about easing its transfer conditions: Trading in Australian .au domains can begin. " 
9. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .au, .eu and .bayern. In: domain-right. September 28, 2011, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “In addition, so-called“ drops ”, ie the renewed freeing of domains as a result of the termination of the registration contract, should become more transparent. The restriction that a registration of .com.au or .net.au domains is reserved exclusively for persons and companies with a registered office in or a valid trademark from Australia remains in place. " 
10. ↑ Properties of a .au domain. united-domains . Retrieved July 17, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Current auDA Published Policies. .au Domain Administration, accessed July 17, 2013 . 
12. ^ Daniel Dingeldey: BMW AG loses before WIPO. In: domain-right. December 16, 2011, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW AG) tried to get hold of the domain name bmwdiscounts.com.au in an arbitration proceeding before the Geneva-based WIPO, but failed because of the developed case law for cases of clear use of such domains by third parties (WIPO Case No. DAU2011-0024). " 
13. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: auDA extends the WHOIS information for .au. In: domain-right. December 3, 2013, accessed December 10, 2013 . 
14. ↑ Florian Hitzelberger: News from .asia, .us and .au. In: domain-right. August 13, 2007, accessed on July 17, 2013 : “The Australian domain administration auDA (.au Domain Administration) has tackled a hot iron: for the future they are planning to use so-called“ DNS wildcards ”. […] The effects of such wildcards are controversial, however, as disadvantages for the security and stability of the domain name system are feared. "