>| The ABA or whoever (i cant be bothered looking it up at the moment) who
made
>| the decision has the legal power to do it..... Robert Elz doesnt enter into
>| the equation, and they can FORCE him to give the 'authority' control of .AU
>
>Ahem... When did these magical laws get enacted that say the Australian
>Government has control over who US bodies delegate domain name space to?
>

These "magical laws" are called "reserve powers" and they already exist in
various areas of Australian laws.

Reserve powers in the telecommunications field, as I understand it, are
part of some new laws which are in the process of being enacted at this
time, as a part of the de-regulation of the Australian telecommunications
market. 

While the last sentence above might seem like a contradiction in terms,  it
is not. Reserve powers are normally not used. It's simply that the
government, in the name of protecting the interests of the people who own
it (the people) reserves the right to step in if a "deregulated and/or
self-regulated" industry goes feral in some dramatically unacceptable way
in the future. It is their intent (as was re-stated at the meeting last
Friday in fact) not to use these powers and to encourage industry
self-regulation. 

[aside: 

As such, the government observers at the meeting on Friday were in favour
of what they were seeing happen at it. The main points being that a process
exists which has industry support and which is very open to the industry it
serves to provide feedback and be involved as appropriate.

Anyone who might want to feel like saying "but it doesn't have industry
support" should put their actions where their words are, and turn up to the
next meeting on 4 april in sydney and prior to that should read and
contribute to the output of the working party who will provide documents
for public comment prior to the meeting. That's what "industry support"
requires - consultation (already happening), proposals for action, and then
*action*.

]

So the bottom line, anyway, is this: Robert Elz, as an australian citizen,
is subject to australian laws - as are all australian citizens. So he can
do what he wants with .au but if any of his actions wind up breaking
australian laws, then he's subject to them. That's all - nothing sinister
here.

Simon


---
Simon Hackett, Technical Director, Internode Systems Pty Ltd
31 York St [PO Box 284, Rundle Mall], Adelaide, SA 5000 Australia
Email: simon§internode.com.au  Web: http://www.on.net
Phone: +61-8-8223-2999          Fax: +61-8-8223-1777