Media Release

Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.

                    Media Release                  February 26th 1999

COM.AU DOMAIN ARBITRARILY REMOVED

Electronic Frontiers Australia today condemned Internet Names Australia
(INA), administrator of the com.au domain, for arbitrarily deregistering
domain names that comply with INA's published policy.

"Domain names are absolutely central to an online presence", said EFA
Board member Irene Graham. "Deregistration of domains on the whim of
INA creates serious uncertainties for Australian businesses."

An Australian business recently registered the domain "fuck.com.au",
an abbreviation of the business name "Futurechicks". Three weeks after
approving the domain name, INA deregistered the domain on the ground
that approval was granted in error and the name is 'unacceptable'. The
domain name complies with INA's published policy.

"INA obviously seeks to be part of the 'respectable' establishment by
suppressing naughty words, albeit retrospectively.", said Graham.
"However, INA has demonstrated that it is out of touch with prevailing
community standards. The word "fuck" is not illegal in Australia. It is
permitted, for example, in films and videos that Australian children may
legally view without parental supervision, in accord with classification
guidelines established under Australian censorship laws."

"INA must comply with its published policy and reinstate the domain", said
Graham. "Failure to do so sends a message to all Australian businesses that
receipt of approval of a domain name from INA is worthless. At any moment,
INA is likely to retract approval."

"While INA ignores its own published guidelines, and prevailing community
standards, it is quite probable that they will next decide that fk.com.au,
currently held by a firm of solicitors, is phonetically unacceptable, or
claim that bhp.com.au means something unacceptable in a Central Australian
language."

"INA's attempts to sanitise the Web are misguided. Web sites with addresses
such as anyname.com.au/fuck and email addresses such as fuck@anyname.com.au
are trivial to create and outside the control of INA. INA's prohibition of
the domain name fuck.com.au is completely ineffective in protecting anyone
from coarse language."

A South Australian business, Hydrocorp Pty Ltd, has engaged technology
lawyers K. Heitman & Co to appeal INA's ruling.

"No-one will find this site through search engines without typing the
word "fuck" first. It is a word printed in the Macquarie Dictionary, and
the domain name drew up to a thousand visitors per day. The site did
not contain illegal content, and earned money from advertising." said
Hydrocorp's lawyer Kimberley Heitman.

This is not the first time INA has tried to impose censorship of Internet
addresses. The band TISM was refused the domain name wanker.com.au, and
had to buy the domain name wanker.com from America instead.

--------------------------------------------------------------
  Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc  --  http://www.efa.org.au/
  representing Internet users concerned with on-line freedoms
--------------------------------------------------------------
  Media Contact
     Danny Yee
     Phone: 02 9955 9898 (home)
     Phone: 02 9351 5159 (work)
     Email: danny.yee@efa.org.au

This URL: http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR990226.html
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BACKGROUND

Internet Names Australia
	http://www.ina.com.au/

INA policy on domain names
	http://www.ina.com.au/policy/policyfr.html

TISM web site
	http://www.tism.wanker.com/

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