>the changes in naming policy have
>led to this growth at a time when, in global domain name spaces such as
>.com, registrations are declining' said auDA CEO, Chris Disspain

Um, .com is declining?  I think not.

According to Snapnames (www.sotd.info), .com registration numbers have grown
as follows:
30/9/02   21,414,179 names
31/12/02  22,019,903 names
31/1/03   22,340,052 names
28/2/03   22,504,244 names
31/3/03   22,716,330 names

And latest figures (from Name Intelligence (www.dailychanges.com) who quote
snapnames as a client and I believe are using the same methodology:
5/8/03 23,881,849 names

That's an increase of 2,467,670 names over 10 months which is an 11.5% increase.
 Note that these are net figures, ie they represent existing names plus
new names minus deletions.

I don't disagree at all that auDA has achieved a lot, however that claim
just ain't true.

jon