>_From: Giles Donovan
> 
> Hi Kim
> 
> Thank you for bringing the remarks of Clive Flory to the list.
> 
> For the benefit of the list, INA issued a press release on 5 Oct claiming a number of issues.
> 
> 1. Customers are confused about domain names and which ones should be registered by their business
> 2. Customers are not being told au.com is a privately held domain name

and .com.au is publicly held? hello?

the election is over its time for progress.


> 3. NetRegistry use a quote from Jon Postel in their advertising that is out of context, misleading customers
> 4. People selling au.com have claimed that "com.au is full"
> 5. Customers are confused that au.com and com.au are very similar
> 6. com.au is "the only <underlined> official Internet space for Australian business"
> 
> Like Kim, I would have to disagree that com.au is the only domain for Australian businesses. According to NSI, com registration are nearly as high as com.au and rose 12% last month, compared to those in August. Not to mention the net.au's, org.au's etc.
> 
> I feel particularly offended that we should be accused of saying com.au is full, after all I believe we are INA's second largest client and provide pages of information on our website on the merits of com.au, au.com and other domain endings. 
> 
> Our quote from Jon Postel is far from out of context. In answer to the question, "We would also welcome your views on .au.com", Jon replied "I do think that alternative names should be available, so I do encourage the development of the "au.com" domain." As per our advert.
> 
> Customers are confused about au.com/com.au. I don't think is surprising, after all most customers are confused about domain names full stop! That's why pages of FAQ are needed. A particular short coming of the INA website :-(.
> 
> >From NetRegistry's perspective I would prefer that INA didn't confuse the press with this sort of mis-information, particularly when it targets a big customer who is left with little recourse but to take it on the chin and keep sending them customers. 
> 
> I will say that Clive's concerns about au.com being a private domain are reasonable. Both Kerry Henry and Gary Rice (x-Seven network CEO), both of Clickon Australia, have been talking to us about regulation of this domain authority. For those that don't know, Clickon is a multi-million dollar e-commerce project that uses 1,300 generic au.com domains to allow customers an easy way of finding content. We're all agreed that au.com should be structured in a manner that regulates it's adminstration and submissions are being made to the relevant government authorities. You can be assured that this issue will be resolved.
> 
> Clive. We are not a threat to your business! We sell a lot of your product, we advertise it more than anyone else. If you've got an issue with our business and the way we do it, our telephone number is 02 9699 6099!! 
> 
> Giles
> 

Vic