Rogue domain registrar to challenge regulator again

October 2004

A Canberra-based domain registrar with a trail of angry customers will take the domain regulator back to court in November to contest the extent of its powers.

Capital Networks, holding company of registrar TotalNIC, will appeal a June decision that upheld the Australian Domain Administration's (auDA) right to request documents on TotalNIC's generic top level domain (gTLD) operations.

AuDA requested the documents after receiving complaints from TotalNIC customers around the world that gTLD domains could not be transferred from the registrar, and were "locked in".

AuDA has authority only over the .au domain space. However, the regulator asked TotalNIC for gTLD business documents as it believed those operations were bringing its .au accreditation into disrepute.