Peter Gerrand wrote:
] Some of you will be aware that commencing before, and independent of,
] iiNet initiating its costly court action, Melbourne IT started
] constructive discussions with Pauline Van Winson of ISOC-AU and Luke
] Carruthers of INTIAA concerning an optional alternative approach to the
] treatment of the 'historical' domain names registered before Melbourne
] IT commenced its role on 8 October 1996 as com.au administrator.
]  
] It is expected that this agreement - which is awaiting ratification by
] the ISOC-AU membership - will be confirmed and announced on Monday 17
] March. I note that Michael Mallone is seeking to claim credit through
] his court action for changes that were already close to agreement
] between Melbourne IT and the principal Internet industry associations,
] working co-operatively and amicably togather, at the time he launched
] his court action.

It seems to me that if Melbourne IT had signalled well in advance of
March 17 (eg: weeks ago) that a relaxation of the deadlines in their
Pricing Policy was seriously being considered, then iinet may not have
found it necessary to force the issue with Court action at the 11th hour.

If Michael Malone was not aware that these negotiations were being held,
and were likely to succeed in their objective of modifying Melbourne IT's
Pricing Policy, then he could hardly be blamed for thinking that iinet's
Court action was the primary reason for Melbourne IT's apparently sudden
change of heart.

I would also note that it takes two parties to work co-operatively and
amicably together.  In particular this is not possible if the second
party does not respond to advances by the first party.

I am also curious as to why ISOC-AU membership would need to ratify
that Melbourne IT does not need to enforce a deadline Melbourne IT set
for themselves.
__________________________________________________________________________
David Keegel <djk&#167;cyber.com.au>  http://www.cyber.com.au/  +61 3 9642-5997
Cybersource P/L: Unix Systems Administration and TCP/IP network management