On Thursday, December 20, 2001, at 08:16  AM, craig.ng§maddocks.com.au 
wrote:

> Ron - two points:
>
> - it is unlikely that any policy change at the regulatory level (which 
> will
> result in the cancellation of an existing domain name) will have 
> retrospective
> effect - to suggest that this is likely to occur is, I believe, 
> disingenuous.

I'm not a lawyer Craig, but I reckon your definition of disingenuous is 
not well-researched:
I refer to,
http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR990226.html
Here's a text copy for those who don't like clicking links.
<snip>
Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.



                     Media Release                  February 26th 1999

COM.AU DOMAIN ARBITRARILY REMOVED

Electronic Frontiers Australia today condemned Internet Names Australia
(INA), administrator of the com.au domain, for arbitrarily deregistering
domain names that comply with INA's published policy.

"Domain names are absolutely central to an online presence", said EFA
Board member Irene Graham. "Deregistration of domains on the whim of
INA creates serious uncertainties for Australian businesses."

An Australian business recently registered the domain "fuck.com.au",
an abbreviation of the business name "Futurechicks". Three weeks after
approving the domain name, INA deregistered the domain on the ground
that approval was granted in error and the name is 'unacceptable'. The
domain name complies with INA's published policy.

"INA obviously seeks to be part of the 'respectable' establishment by
suppressing naughty words, albeit retrospectively.", said Graham.
"However, INA has demonstrated that it is out of touch with prevailing
community standards. The word "fuck" is not illegal in Australia. It is
permitted, for example, in films and videos that Australian children may
legally view without parental supervision, in accord with classification
guidelines established under Australian censorship laws."

"INA must comply with its published policy and reinstate the domain", 
said
Graham. "Failure to do so sends a message to all Australian businesses 
that
receipt of approval of a domain name from INA is worthless. At any 
moment,
INA is likely to retract approval."

"While INA ignores its own published guidelines, and prevailing community
standards, it is quite probable that they will next decide that 
fk.com.au,
currently held by a firm of solicitors, is phonetically unacceptable, or
claim that bhp.com.au means something unacceptable in a Central 
Australian
language."

"INA's attempts to sanitise the Web are misguided. Web sites with 
addresses
such as anyname.com.au/fuck and email addresses such as 
fuck&#167;anyname.com.au
are trivial to create and outside the control of INA. INA's prohibition 
of
the domain name fuck.com.au is completely ineffective in protecting 
anyone
from coarse language."

A South Australian business, Hydrocorp Pty Ltd, has engaged technology
lawyers K. Heitman & Co to appeal INA's ruling.

"No-one will find this site through search engines without typing the
word "fuck" first. It is a word printed in the Macquarie Dictionary, and
the domain name drew up to a thousand visitors per day. The site did
not contain illegal content, and earned money from advertising." said
Hydrocorp's lawyer Kimberley Heitman.

This is not the first time INA has tried to impose censorship of Internet
addresses. The band TISM was refused the domain name wanker.com.au, and
had to buy the domain name wanker.com from America instead.
<unsnip>
>

Mike Russell.