At 09:45 AM 25/03/2002, Ron Stark wrote:
>At the risk of provoking a violent reaction ("Over my dead body!" was one
>such and "What??" another), I'll float the idea again:
>
>All of the practices we want to stamp out are centred on domain name
>renewals.  We can easily stop it all cold - instantly - simply by decreeing
>that *only* registrars are permitted to send out renewal notices, and then
>only to their own registrants.  We could even increase the price (or margin)
>for the first registration, and lower the renewal price.

 From a consumer perspective, this proposal makes good sense.  Whether it 
would be a matter of a simple decree is open to question.  Obviously if any 
of the new registrars are scam merchants we are back to square 
one.  Nevertheless, the proposal deserves consideration.

At the moment the reputation of the "domain name industry" in this country 
stinks, thanks to a few unethical organisations.  But I doubt it will be 
cleaned up by whinging on this list.  Those who are complaining need to 
take positive action, such as:
- joining auDA and voting wisely at the election of directors.
- lodging complaints with the ACCC against those companies that are 
breaching the TPA.
- lodging complaints with ASIC (the real one).

Self-regulatory Codes of Practice can only go so far, but the mechanisms 
already exist to deal with illegal or shady practices, in this or any other 
industry.

Greg