Hi Bruce,

thank you for your clear and informative reply.

A few thoughts:

> A reseller can use an "add" command on the reseller interface to add a
> domain name to their account.  This command can act like a "transfer"
> command in the gTLD context where the name is moved from one reseller
> account to another reseller account.  When an add command is executed, an
> email advice is sent to (1) the reseller-transfer loser (2) the
> reseller-transfer winner, and (3) the administrative contact for
> the domain
> name.

I guess that the transfer of 'domain name management between resellers' in
the current regime is likely to have very similar requirements to the
'transfer of domain name between registrars' in the future competitive
regime.  Therefore I found your information on this valuable.


> To tighten the security of this procedure further, Melbourne IT
> will soon be
> requiring the registry key of the domain name registrant to be used by the
> reseller to perform the add or renew operation as a method of
> authenticating
> that the registrant has authorised the transfer.

Do you think its necessary to ask for registry key as authentication if its
just a renewal with no change of reseller (change of Registrar in the future
competitive environment) or is that overkill?  I'm trying to find any
advantage in doing so if there's no change of management authority, and
struggling to find a benefit - but its possible I haven't thought thru the
issues clearly enough.


I agree that tightening up the authentication for a change of reseller
(change of Registrar in the future system) is desirable.  And I'd certainly
recommend that Melbourne IT bring in any tightening up of authentication
ASAP for the following rather political reason :)

If Melbourne IT improves the process now, it can put hand on heart and state
that it is improving the integrity for the benefit of the Users.  If MelbIT
waits until the introduction of competition between Registrars to tighten
the authentication process, my prediction is that it will be accused of
"being obstructionist, trying to protect its existing business, and making
it difficult for new Registrars to get customers transferred over to them".

When competition arrives and there are multiple Registrars trying to get
going and possibly offering all sorts of deals, I suspect there may be quite
a lot of pressure applied to Melbourne IT to try and make that transfer as
easy and quick as possible, and it wouldn't surprise me to see entities
complaining about the difficulty of getting domain names transferred.

Let me make clear my opinion - I hope that Melbourne IT has a tough
authentication process in place and that it is followed carefully.  If that
means the transfer of domain names from Melbourne IT to competing Registrars
goes a bit slower than those Registrars might have hoped, well, I can live
with that.  I reckon having waited this many years for competition to
arrive, I can accept a slow and steady pace of change if that's what's
necessary for accuracy and stability.  I sure wouldn't want to have to be
asking these sorts of questions about "how come Registrar X suddenly has
authority for my domain name" if I haven't authorised a change.


Regards, Mark

Mark Hughes
Effective Business Applications Pty Ltd
effectivebusiness§pplications.com.au
www.pplications.com.au
+61 4 1374 3959

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