[Linux-aus] It's that time of year again

[Peter Lieverdink]

----- "Glen Turner" <gdt at gdt.id.au> wrote:
> On 02/07/09 22:08, Peter Lieverdink wrote:
> 
> > Correct. CONF.AU is another matter altogether. He does create the
> policy for that domain and maintain it.
> 
> The conf.au policy was established by AUNIC, and AUNIC's policy making
> powers went to AuDA via a ACMA regulation, not to Robert.

Right, my bad. (Don't you love hearsay?)

> > There have been back and forwards emails with AUDA for years to no
> effect. Lots of emails.
> 
> I meant in the sense of direct lobbying of the board members, rather
> than the AuDA staff.

I don't know if that's been done. For LCA2008 we were dealing directly with auda staff.

> > He can fix it very easily by:
> >
> > 1) Allowing ongoing registrations for CONF.AU just like any other AU
> domain.
> 
> Then all the DNS spivs will want the same access. He he refuses them,
> then they
> will sue him. Robert is an individual with limited assets and has no
> wish to be engaged in threats of legal action yet again.

Allowing AUDA to administer the domain, rather than hosting it on an occasionally wonky (and sometimes missing) DNS server in Thailand might be a good idea then. The AUDA staff we've been corresponding with were under the impression AUDA *were* in fact administering it, but became unresponsive when they found out they weren't.

> > 2) Grandfathering LINUX.CONF.AU to the only organisation that uses
> it.
> That's a policy decision. AuDA's decision to make, not Robert's.

AUDA have promised this for several years, with no action. See above.

> > Note that I do not advocate hassling him, but just not using the
> domain anymore.
> 
> Yeah. But it is *such* a good name :-(

It is, but having it available for 6 months out of the year just makes it unusable. You can't promote it, because by the time the conf opens, the domain is gone again.

> > AUDA have promised us the domain and then changed their minds when
> they found out that KRE is in charge of it. Again, no energy or will
> to go through the whole rigmarole *again* only to probably end up in
> the same place.
> 
> That doesn't match with my correspondence with AuDA on this issue when
> I transferred the linux.conf.au domain from myself to Linux Australia.

Nevertheless. We've had assurances, which then came to nothing. And I believe that had been going on well before 2007/2008 as well.

If you can find people willing to lobby the auda board and actually get *any* movement on this issue whatever, all the better. I think it's a lost cause though.

Cheers,
- P.