September 2019
Message from the Commissioner
Kia Ora,
This month the DNCL and InternetNZ have referred to the .nz Policy Advisory Panel the vexed question of whether the provisions of the .nz policies should be expanded to more proactively monitor online harm or illegal activity in the .nz domain namespace.
The Domain Name Abuse Forum hosted by InternetNZ and DNCL in November 2018 drew out stakeholder feedback seeking a more proactive approach in the area of domain name abuse prevention and Internet harm minimisation.
Currently, the .nz policies say DNCL’s position regarding domain name abuse is to follow the rule of law and natural justice principles and leave these matters to the court.
Expanding enforcement activity allowed by the .nz policy framework would require expanding DNCL’s jurisdiction and necessitates public consultation.
We’ve asked the Panel to consider the independent David Pickens’ report when thinking about how to overcome the issue of illegal activity and harm, and the role of the regulator (e.g. should it be expanded to more closely monitor and regulate against online harm and illegal activity) and other players in the New Zealand justice system. We would also like the Panel’s views on how any changes may impact trust, security, openness, and privacy.
The narrative on domain names has shifted from "not my problem" to ”what are some solutions". The social licence matters, both in terms of its place in local communities and a wider self regulatory contractual setting that allows .nz to exist.
This month we completed our consultation on reimagining the dispute resolution service. I’ve written a guest blog for InternetNZ with a summary of our engagement approach and the key insights.
Further afield, we gave two presentations this month at the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association meeting on the Christchurch Call and the .nz dispute resolution process. All presentations are available from the APTLD website. 
At the meeting we were also appointed as the Australasian member representatives for the Working Group responsible for developing APTLD’s Transparency and Accountability Framework.
On October 3 one of New Zealand’s biggest Internet events Nethui 2019 kicks off. The Prime Minister will be giving a speech on the Christchurch call. Tickets are still available and I hope to see many of you there.
Ngā Mihi,
Brent
Dispute resolutions expert panel vacancies
Applications for two paid expert positions for the .nz Dispute Resolution Service panel are currently being sought.
If you know of a suitable lawyer who would make a good panellist we’d appreciate you bringing
these vacancies to their attention.
New 2019 dispute resolution decisions
The DNCL has released four decisions relating to the resolution of domain name disputes. They are:
In all decisions, the experts determined that the domain names should be transferred to the complainants.
The Pure Breast Care case included a non-standard submission process. This is where each party has submitted additional documentation. A non-standard submission must be approved by the expert hearing the dispute. This is in exceptional circumstances and standard filing practices are for all parties to submit all relevant information in the initial filing and reply responses.
Provision of a Unique Domain Name Authenticator Identifier (UDAI)
Our Contact Centre and twitter feed have received a number of inquiries about the provision of UDAIs.
Registrants typically want this when they are changing service providers. UDAIs only last for 30 days for security reasons. Registrants with domain names licenced for more than one month will often need a new number.
A registrant’s email address to which UDAIs are sent must be the email contained in the registration record.
Where the email address is that of a web designer, a former staff member, or IT contractor, the provision of a UDAI is much harder. Getting one will involve a lot of back and forth emails between registrars, resellers, registrants and the DNCL.
To avoid delays with renewals and transfers, registrants should always have an email address listed in their domain name registration record that is under their control. That way UDAI requests are much more straightforward and changes to a domain name record can happen much faster.
Do you know that resellers have .nz obligations?
The DNCL would like to remind all .nz registrars that under .nz policy they are responsible for all actions of any person or organisation acting as a reseller through them.
DNCL encourages .nz registrars and their resellers to have an agreement. On our website we have published information relating to resellers - and are keen to expand and explore what information is relevant for resellers.
So if you are a .nz authorised Registrar with resellers or a reseller - please feel free to reach out to us with any questions about .nz policy obligations.
$500 prezzy card up for grabs for completing the .nz survey
There is a $500 prezzy card on offer for completing the .nz Panel’s survey. 
Your odds of winning are pretty high at the moment with a 1:50 chance based on current responses - better than lotto! Topics range from scams through to equal opportunities. Fill it in here: surveymonkey.com/r/dotNZ
Media and articles that caught our attention
The privacy paradigm shift - huge fines show privacy issues can no longer be ignored. If data is the new oil, then data breaches are the new oil spills. New Zealand organisations would be well advised to pay attention to the growing regulator, consumer and investor focus on privacy, understand their obligations - and take action now.
DNS-over-HTTPS (DOH) including instructions on enabling or disabling DOH in Firefox.
The consequences of governments shutting down the Internet.
Single sign on. A good thing or a tool that can be used to phish for domain name details?
Discussions by the European Commission with implications for the domain name industry. For example, a proposed Digital Service Act to revamp the eCommerce Directive and consideration of intermediary liability concepts for registries and registrars, and rules for public interest data.
