Mailout sparks domain naming row

An Australian company is accused of charging too much for new net names. ADAM GIFFORD reports.

An Australian company may lose its licence to sell New Zealand internet names after sending a mass mailout to name holders inviting them to pay an inflated non-refundable fee for "preregistration" for the new .biz and .info domain names.

InternetNZ is asking the Commerce Commission to investigate whether the letter from Melbourne-based Internet Name Group (ING) breached the Fair Trading Act.

InternetNZ chairman Keith Davidson said the society and Domainz, its subsidiary company which runs the .nz registry, have been besieged with queries about the letters, which many people mistakenly thought was a bill.

"ING is charging $250 Australian ($301) for a service which is available considerably cheaper elsewhere, and that money is non-refundable if they don't get the name," Mr Davidson said.

He said people should look closely at the prices being charged for any internet-related service.

ING's letter does not say which currency the $250 is in, but gives an internet address for terms and conditions.

"It's New Zealand dollars," said ING director and lawyer Mark Spektor.

But ING's site says the fee is "AUD$250.00", including GST.

ING also fails to point out that the process for getting .biz and .info domain names is a lottery.

The new domains were recently approved by the Internet Commission for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the Register.com registry is charging $US5 ($11) for holders of names in other domains to preregister.

If more than one name holder meeting the criteria preregisters, it will pick a winner.

Mr Spektor said that was not a lottery, "It's a randomised process."

If ING fails to secure the name requested, it will not return the money.

Mr Spektor said company policy was to give customers a full credit for other services.

The letter asks people to send the company their credit card number, but does not have a space for them to write in the amount being paid.

A New Zealand Post spokesman said the mailing address on the letter, Private Bag 1, Onehunga, did not exist.

Domainz has sent ING a "please explain" letter to find out whether the company got the addresses from Domainz' "Whois" server, in breach of its agreement as an approved .nz domain name register.

Though Mr Spektor denies it, the mailout appears to have gone to most of the 86,000 .co.nz name holders.

"We're reviewing their agreement and feel on strong grounds to do something," said Domainz chief executive Derek Locke.

"We're looking at what options we have to terminate the agreement.

"If they have misused the data we will have no hesitation dropping them."

That would mean ING's .nz customers would have to switch registrars, and ING would no longer have access to the whois server.

Mr Spektor denied ING had harvested the Domainz server for its mailing list.

"It is information which is publicly available from sources on the internet," he said, but refused to say where the information came from.

Two weeks ago .au Domain Administration (auDA) blocked ING's access to its .com.au whois server for misuse.

"We established a pattern of excessive querying by certain people, including ING, and blocked access," Mr Disspain said.

He said ING sent a similar mail out to .com.au name holders.

ING has also come under fire for sending out renewal notices for domains registered with other registrars.

If the name holder responds, they transfer the name over.

Mr Disspain said that although auDA was unhappy with the practice, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission did not consider it breached fair trading rules.

Mr Spektor said his company took a "proactive" approach to the marketplace.

"We inform people they have to renew their names.

"We have renewed some very high-level domain names which have expired," Mr Spektor said.

He said the .biz and .info campaign came from similar motives.

"A lot of New Zealanders are not aware of the preregistration process. Once the registries open (on October 1) there will be a land rush, and a lot of those names will be taken," he said.

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