On Thursday, 8 February 2001 1:14 Ed Sweeney [ed§capital.net.au] wrote:

> AuDA would probably take the position that accessing via the TCP WHOIS
> service is an implied consent to the copyright and terms of 
> use published
> on the site.
> ...
> At 12:06 PM 2/8/2001 +1100, Rowe, Joshua wrote:
> >On http://www.aunic.net/namestatus.html there's a new link:
> >
> >"AUNIC Copyright and Terms of Use" 
> > ...
> >However, there isn't a Copyright and Terms of Use statement 
> for direct whois
> >queries ...
 
Whether or not auDA take that view, it is highly unlikely that the terms
would be effective over and above their effectiveness as implied terms.

What may be more effective is the statement on the Namestatus page:

 "You may not send more than 30 queries per hour to AUNIC,
 unless you are an official registrar (like INWW) sending
 queries for official registrar business, or you have prior 
 permission from AUNIC/auDA."

With this statement, it would nevertheless probably not be effective as
against a person who was accessing directly without ever having seen the
notice.  Further the question of proving that a person has seen this notice
would be quite difficult and the damages flowing usually negligible and
again difficult to prove.

It is also unlikely (given the foundation for auDA) that auDA would wish to,
or be able to, withdraw access to the page to anyone abusing the terms, and
if they did, what would stop the person using a different IP Address for
access?

Tony Cooke 
Senior Associate 
Deacons 

p:  9230 0678 
m: 0412 TCooke