Policy for the dropbear.id.au domain

Purpose

The main purpose of the id.au zone (and also dropbear.id.au within it), is to enable individuals to register domain names which may remain constant over a long period of time (eg: 5-10 years).

The domain (and the individuals' E-mail address within it) should still be usuable without change even if individuals change network providers (ISPs), use a different machine for Internet access, change jobs, or move interstate (or even overseas, if they choose to retain an Australian identity).

Restrictions

Existing domains that do not meet the following restrictions may be disabled. Applications that do not meet the following restrictions will not be approved.

1. Applicants must be a residents of Australia or a citizens of Australia. Once domain names are granted, applicants may continue to use them even if they cease to be residents or citizens of Australia.
2. dropbear.id.au domains are for personal use only, and will not be granted to organizations of any kind. Larger groups of individuals are requested to submit separate applications. This is to maximise the chances of achieving one of the major goals of the id.au domain :- that individuals may use the same E-mail address unchanged for many years. The only situations where a dropbear.id.au domain can be used as part of an email address by anyone other than the domain holder are:
   1. A household shares the same email server, and are unable to configure it to accept email to multiple domains.
   2. A temporary email account is set up for a friend or relative. No charge of any kind can be made for this account.
3. An individual can only maintain a single domain in id.au.
4. Domains will never be deleted. If a domain needs to be disabled, it will be replaced with TXT entries in the DNS database.
5. An individual can only get a new domain if the original domain name was based on the domain holder's real name (not a nickname or alias), and the domain holder's name has been legally changed. The original domain will be disabled after 6 months.
6. A dropbear.id.au domain holder must remain responsible for their entire domain, and not allow delegations of subdomains to anyone. If you have a need to do this, you should be applying for your own third level id.au domain.
7. A dropbear.id.au domain holder must keep their NIC information current. The dropbear.id.au administrator relies on this information to be able to contact you. The minimum required contact information is a valid email address and a method of contact independant of the Internet (fax, phone number, Postal Address etc.). Note that in dropbear.id.au, this information is stored in a publicly accessible database (see Privacy).
8. Requests for confirmation of contact details will be emailed at regular intervals, at which time the domain holder should confirm their continued existance. If no contact is made with a domain holder for twelve months, the domain will be disabled until such time as the domain holder contacts the dropbear.id.au administrator.
9. dropbear.id.au domains may not be bought, sold or traded.
10. Domain names considered obscene or offensive by the administrator of dropbear.id.au <hostmaster@dropbear.id.au> will only be registered if it matches one of the the applicant's legal names (no nicknames or abreviations). Applicants in this situation may wish to consider changing their names.

Privacy

dropbear.id.au, unlike other id.au domains, does not maintain its own database for contact information of domain holders. Instead, this information is maintained through the AUNIC Registration Services in the same database used for most other second level au domains.

It is possible to look up the contact details associated with your NIC handle, and it is possible to find out your NIC handle by querying your dropbear.id.au domain. People who dislike this policy should obtain a domain in one of the other id.au domains. The only contact information required for a dropbear.id.au domain is a valid email address and a method of contact independant of the Internet (phone, fax, postal address etc.).

Note that this policy depends on the current policy of the AUNIC registry. However, as one of the major functions of the AUNIC registry is to allow people to look up domain controllers contact details (eg. To phone them if email has been undeliverable for an extended period), this is unlikly to change.

Charging

Registration in dropbear.id.au is currently free of charge and shall remain free for the forseeable future. If it becomes necessary to charge for registrations and modifications in the future, existing dropbear.id.au domain holders will be credited with three free modifications. If it becomes necessary for a yearly charge, existing domain holders will be credited with five years free of this change. Existing domain holders will be notified via email if this happens.

Registration

Successful Applicants shall be granted a domain of their choice under dropbear.id.au, provided that name is not already taken and is not considered offensive or obscene by <hostmaster@dropbear.id.au>.

Applicants are encouraged to use their surname (or an abbreviation thereof) as the domain name, since that is quite unlikely to change over time, whereas a favourite word may not be so favoured in five or ten years time.

Registration and delegation of the domain will normally be completed within seven days from receipt of a valid and complete application.

Applicants who disagree with, do not meet or do not plan to meet the restrictions outlined above should apply for a domain elsewhere. Individuals in this situation are free to apply for a domain elsewhere in id.au. Companies, educational institutions, government authorities, net- work providers, associations and other miscellenous organisations are requested to apply for a name within the appropriate domain heirarchy within AU (com.au edu.au gov.au net.au asn.au org.au).

Registration is done through a WWW Interface. Modifications to existing domains are done through the AUNIC Registry.

Policies inherited from the id.au policy

dropbear.id.au is run by the administrator of dropbear.id.au as an agent for the id.au domain administrator (Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au>, at present).

While it is the dropbear.id.au administrator's responsibility to ensure that this database is kept up-to-date, the co-operation of registrants in the domain by informing the administrator of any changes to their contact details would be highly appreciated (For dropbear.id.au, this means keep your NIC handle updated or your domain will get disabled after 12 months).

The terms of this policy shall not be varied substantially without at least one month's notice (barring minor syntactic changes which do not affect the meaning of the policy). In the case of a change, all those registered in dropbear.id.au have the option of continuing under the terms that were in affect at the time they registered.

The dropbear.id.au domain may in future be "closed" if the number of entries in the domain becomes excessive.

Should the dropbear.id.au administrator become unable to continue providing a server for dropbear.id.au, he will notify the id.au zone administrator, and if possible to hand-over all relevant information to a new zone administrator appointed by the id.au zone administrator.

The dropbear.id.au administrator also agrees to stand aside (and co-operate in handing over to a successor as above) if the id.au zone administrator considers him not to be keeping to the id.au policy in the administration of dropbear.id.au and requests his resignation (so to speak).