StephenConroy.com.au vs auDA - the stoush continues

David Heath
Tuesday, 22 December 2009 10:07

Your IT - Home IT

Both sides are holding their ground; unfortunately the ground currently held by auDA includes the confiscated domain name.

Late yesterday, Chris Dispain of auDA responded to Monday's open letter in defence of the 'takedown' against stephenconroy.com.au (referred to hereafter as 'the site').

You state below that your eligibility for the domain names is that you are a recognised business entity for the purpose of democratic protest against Senator Conroy. This does not constitute a close and substantial connection under auDA's Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for Open 2LDs (2008-05) at http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2008-05/.

We note that this claimed reason for eligibility is different from the reason provided in your email of 16.09 Friday 18 December when you stated;

"Sapia Pty Ltd carries a consultancy product with 'Stephen Conroy' in it's name. We are also an IT Consultancy and we feel that given that Stephen Conroy is the minister for communications in this country we have fair use".

As we stated in our response to your email, this reason also does not constitute a close and substantial connection pursuant to our policy.

For clarity, I repeat what I said in my email of 15.55 on Friday;

" ...... it is important to note that the domain names will remain registered to Sapia for the 14 day pending delete period and that we will review our decision if you provide us with information to demonstrate your compliance with the policy rules. Obviously you will need to provide this before the end of the pending delete period."

Please note the following:

a) The fact that the website "contains no illegal material" is irrelevant to our consideration of your eligibility for the domain names;

b) The fact that our office is closed does not prevent you from providing additional material which we will consider should it be received at any time prior to the expiry of the pending delete period.

Read on for the site's response and commentary.