Boz Cappie wrote :-

] In NSW, an individual USED to be able to legally trade under their own name
] without registering that name as a business name, ie Joe Bloggs Consulting.
] This, I believe, is known as "sole trader" status. I don't know if this
] situation still exists, but it looks as though it probably does. Perhaps
] one of the legals on the list might like to clarify this.
] 
] Given this, Melbourne IT's rules state:
] 
] Any legal entity which is a commercial entity that trades in Australia can
] register a COM.AU
] domain name. For the purposes of this policy a commercial entity is
] considered to be one that
] exists to make a profit. 
] 
] Examples include companies, statutory corporations or authorities,
] incorporated associations,
] partnerships and sole traders. 

The old com.au policy (when kre used to run it all himself) said :-

2) The organisation must be an organisation of some kind, that is, not
   an individual.  Companies, Statutory Authorities, Partnerships, etc, are
   all acceptable.  Individuals running established businesses as sole
   traders, with registered trading names will usually be accepted.
   Individuals planning to start new businesses will usually be rejected
   (the ID.AU domains are available).
 
This file is still available at ftp://munnari.oz.au:/netinfo/COM.AU-policy.

I will leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions about why
Melbourne IT requested a change to this policy to remove the reference
to id.au and make it easier for sole traders to buy a com.au name, by
taking out the guidelines that they should be an established business
and have a registered trading name.

Declaration of potential interest: I run one of the *.id.au registries,
as a volunteer.  I do not receive any money for that.
__________________________________________________________________________
 David Keegel <djk&#167;cyber.com.au>  URL: http://www.cyber.com.au/users/djk/
Cybersource P/L: Unix Systems Administration and TCP/IP network management