auDA to relax domain transfer policy - good news for Aussies

Us Aussies have been grateful to auDA for the wonderful management of the .com.au tld for a while now and this is just the icing on the cake. It is pretty much the only thing we may have craved over recent months - the ability to transfer .com.au domain ownership.

Yesterday, auDA issued a statement about the change to domain transfer policy which should make all Aussies happier than before.

Here is an excerpt of the new policy

* it will not be allowable to register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to a third party
* registrants will not be able to transfer their domain name for the first 6 months after the initial registration (this does not apply to domain names that have been renewed or previously transferred)
* after 6 months, registrants will be able to offer their domain name for sale/transfer by any means (eg. by listing the domain name for sale on a domain brokerage website, advertising the domain name for sale in a newspaper, or contacting a prospective buyer directly)
* registrant transfers will be processed by the registrar of record using a standard transfer form, and the registrar may charge a transfer fee
* parties to a transfer will be asked to disclose the sale method and price, on a voluntary and confidential basis, so that auDA may collect aggregated statistical data to improve access to market information for buyers and sellers.

The implementation timetable hasn’t yet been finalized, but they expect to have the changes in place by mid 2008.