In 2002, auDA -- .au Domain Administration -- introduced the "close and
substantial connection rule", which allowed companies to register
domain names that, although not derived from their own company or
business name, are connected to their business in some way. For
example, it would be acceptable for a real estate directory service to
register names such as houses.com.au, apartments.com.au, land.com.au,
estateagent.com.au.
However, on Friday, auDA issued a statement saying it is considering changing the rule after some companies were found to be "using this interpretation of the close and substantial connection rule to register large numbers of domain names apparently for the primary purpose of capturing Web traffic and/or selling click-through advertising".
However, on Friday, auDA issued a statement saying it is considering changing the rule after some companies were found to be "using this interpretation of the close and substantial connection rule to register large numbers of domain names apparently for the primary purpose of capturing Web traffic and/or selling click-through advertising".
Interesting - they are going in the opposite direction, compared to the gTLDs and wanna-be gTLDs.
[via ZDNet]
