To paraphrase Vic:

"... registrars are required to have a contract with the end registrant
which involves the registrant *knowing* they have entered into such a
contract with the registrar."

Resellers, in the main, act on behalf of the registrant when registering a
domain name and this process does not involve the registrant knowingly
entering into any contract with the registrar.  A registrant can not be
legally bound by a contract they have no knowledge of and most definitely
have not directly entered into, this has already been established by the
fact that resellers have no status with auDA and cannot be legally acting on
behalf of a registrant.

I have no particular preference for either side of this argument but I am
interested in any possible ramifications for my clients, that's what they
pay me for, to manage their domain interests.

It is quite clear that a significant number of domain registrations
currently occurring are done on behalf of a third party without any legal
basis for entering into a contract on behalf of the third party.

Where does this leave the validity of domain registrations by resellers (or
helpful friends) to date?

alwyn