At 2:12 AM 4/12/96, Dougal Holmes/NTH/North/AU wrote:
>>I do not think it is a good idea to have two commercial 2LD's under the
>>same TLD. This is only going to confuse people, and there are still
>>plenty of free names in the '.COM.AU' namespace.
>>
>>How about setting up as a second DNA for .com.au instead?
>>
>
>Hear hear. I cannot see whay another commercial domain is required. Whilst I 
>think the way Melbourne IT has handled the commercialisation of the COM.AU 
>registry, I believe that the proposed annual charges are not unreasonable.

The crux of this issue is that of a monopoly structure. Any monopoly operation has issues regarding oversight of its operation. If the body is not a public body and does not act
in an entirely open and responsive way such issues attain a greater level of criticality.

Introducing competitive pressures back into the enviroinment is one 
familiar way of avoiding the potential pitfalls of an unrestricted and unregulated monopoly.

This can take the form of more players in the same namespace (.com.au) or
(less desireably admittedly) more namespaces, or both.


Thanks,

  Geoff



-- 
Geoff.Huston§telstra.net

Network Technical Manager    Locked Bag 5744,
Telstra Internet             Canberra  ACT  2601
                             AUSTRALIA

ph  +61 6 208 1908
fax +61 6 248 6165


-----------------------
And as a quick postscript to those cut and paste reporters lurking
out there...

Copyright of this message is asserted by Geoff Huston
Permission to reproduce this message in whole or in part in any medium
other than the Internet is expressly NOT provided by the copyright owner.
-----------------------