.Amazon GTLD Fight
Brazil and Peru have lodged formal complaints to the Internet governing body over Amazon’s plan to register the .amazon domain name.
ICANN spokesman Andrew Robertson says, ‘I would have to say, yes, there is a possibility that the domain will not be approved. There is an approval process and we are still in it.”
South America is squaring off with online retailer Amazon in a battle over the coveted top-level web domain name the firm shares with the continent’s tropical rain forest.
Brazil and Peru are formally opposing the e-commerce giant’s plans to register the .amazon URL ending with the Los Angeles-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The countries, which account for 73 per cent of the jungle, say it would stop ‘the use of this domain for purposes of public interest’.
These, they added, ‘related to the protection, promotion and awareness raising on issues related to the Amazon biome.’
It would also, they said, ‘hinder the possibility of use of this domain to congregate web pages related to the population inhabiting the geographical region’.
ICANN said it will now send Amazon.com an ‘early warning’ in which it will ask for the firm’s reasons for applying to use the sought-after name.
It will then weigh both sides of the argument, and make its final decision as to who should be allowed to use it. A time frame has not yet been given.
The company has already spent $185,000 trying to register the name, and this would be returned if the application was ultimately rejected, reported GlobalPost.
ICANN spokesman Andrew Robertson told the website it was entirely possible that the South American nations could win the web-domain war.
He said, ‘I would have to say, yes, there is a possibility that the domain will not be approved. There is an approval process and we are still in it.
‘It was always anticipated that there would be objections by governments. It’s a completely new take.’
ICANN, which is a non-profit organization that oversees the assignment of new web addresses, has so far collected a staggering $350 million for the registration of new generic Top-Level Domains.
These include for .gay, .islam, .bible, .sex and . beauty. Brazil and Peru are both among 40 members of ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee.
What are your thoughts on .Amazon? Should the Mighty Amazon be allowed to run the new GTLD, .Amazon?
No,
Amazon should be denied their brand .tld if for no other reason than their brazen attempts to obtain and close off so many generic strings.