> 1 - Inform and educate the consumer - it's ignorance, not
> stupidity, that's being preyed upon.

I must admit that I'm surprised by the lack of effort being made by existing
re-sellers to educate domain name holders.  One of my domain names is hosted
by a Melb IT channel partner who is supposed to be Australia's largest
hoster in terms of number of domain names hosted - and I've been pretty
underwhelmed by their attempts to make clear to me the situation regarding
my options for renewing my domain name.

> 2 - Give the Code of Conduct some substance and real teeth.

Will work for Registrars.  Will work for 'authorised re-sellers' of a
Registrar - if such re-sellers exist.  But don't be surprised if there are
no significant re-sellers come the revolution (i.e. when competition is
introduced).


> 3 - Only permit sales (other than direct to the registrant)
> to take place through resellers that have signed up to the CoC

At the moment, anyone can register domain names on behalf of someone else -
you don't have to be a 'reseller' to do so.  So a web designer can register
a name on behalf of a corner store that he's building a site for.  I can't
see why or how that would change under the new system.

Here's what I wrote to this list in Nov 2001 on the same point:


************

> Is there to be any mechanism to ensure that only accredited
> resellers actually do the selling?

Err, and then what happens??  Do the accredited resellers then only sell to
accredited re-resellers?  Ad infinitum?  The idea that having accredited
re-sellers will solve the problem is a fantasy.  Lets move on from it.

Anyone can register their own company name or business name.  Just truck on
down to your local government dept and do so.

Are we seriously suggesting that on the internet, this paragon of
efficiency, we're going to have more layers & restrictions on who can do
what than a government bureaucracy??  Gawd help us if we design a system
that enables government to point a finger at us and say "you have a worse
bureaucracy than us".

Actually, the whole concept of "accredited re-sellers" seems odd to me.  If
we assume there will be multiple Registrars, and that the hurdle for
Registrars isn't a major barrier to entry (and it doesn't appear to be from
the agreement and application form on the auDA website), then the re-seller
role as different from anyone else registering domain names may be just:

* a small volume related price discount (small 'cause there won't be much
margin to play with in a competitive environment) to a 're-seller'
* account payments for the 're-seller' vs payment via credit card for anyone
else

Difficult to see what else could possibly differentiate a 're-seller' from
anyone else who registers a domain name through a Registrar.

*************



Regards, Mark

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