Zone Transfer Policy Review - Proposed New Policy Submission

From:		Domainz Limited
Received:	29 March 2004


In response to the Zone Transfer Policy, please accept this submission from 
Domainz Limited as a general perception of how the .nz zone file would be 
used to provide further service to industries both locally in New Zealand 
and around the World.

(1) Name generation

Consumers often have difficulty choosing a domain name. Many gTLD and other 
ccTLD Registrars use various algorithms to generate possible domains names. 
Each of these possible domain names is checked against a local copy of the 
zone file for each domain name space to check availability. Before registration, 
a final check is made by a query to the registry. Melbourne IT for example, 
has access to the com, net, org, biz, info, and us zone files for this purpose. 
The use of a locally cached copy of the zone file, ensures that many checks 
can be done without placing a load on either the registry or the DNS name 
server infrastructure.

(2) Brand protection tools

Companies that have strong brands often want to monitor activity around domain 
names that incorporate their brand in some way. Melbourne IT provides services 
to corporate clients that monitor keywords across several zones. For example 
one might wish to monitor the keyword "internetnz", such a service would 
generate a report advising that the name "internetnz-are-great.com" has been 
registered, or removed from a zone file. The tool works by doing wildcard 
searches of a zone file. Domainz wishes to offer this service to the local 
New Zealand market and follow a similar practice.

It is also a tool that allows companies to monitor industry activity. For 
example a monitor on the keyword "books" might keep people abreast of new 
websites that relate to selling and reading books. The tool can be restricted 
to ensure that a minimum number of characters must be used to find a match 
(i.e. monitoring the keyword "a" would not be allowed.

(3) Zone file access agreements

If the zone file is made available for use in the tool s above, it would be 
appropriate to have an agreement that the zone file may not be used for 
running automated searches against WHOIS (ie using the contents of the zone 
file as a key to search the WHOIS) to generate lists of potential customers. 
In other words, the zone file may not be used to generate lists of customers 
for marketing purposes.

(4) Public access to market information

Instead of relying on the zone file for information on the market, it would 
be more efficient for the registry to provide each registrar with a customised 
monthly report showing for that registrar, their statistics for registrations, 
renewals, transfers, and cancellation along with their market position for 
each category. E.g. a registrar could be told they are the number one registrar 
for new names, but the number 2 registrar for renewals. This information assists 
a registrar to identify their weaknesses and improve the efficiency of their 
operations. Ultimately having all registrars striving to improve their market 
position provides benefits to consumers through better service.