South American countries slam ICANN over .amazon domain name decision

[midian182]

In context: In today’s tech age, most people think of Jeff Bezos’ online shopping giant when they hear the word "Amazon," rather than the 4,000-mile long river in South America. It’s partly why the presidents of four Latin American countries have spoken out against the company being granted the rights to the .amazon domain.

For the last seven years, Amazon has been locked in a battle against Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela—who work together as the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO)—over the retailer’s quest to grab the .amazon domain name.

In 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that oversees internet addresses, expanded its list of generic top-level domains (gTLD), thereby allowing companies to apply for new extensions. Amazon, not too surprisingly, wanted the .amazon domain, but the eight countries believe this exclusivity could impact on matters of their sovereignty.

The issue heated up in 2018 when ICANN removed the “Will Not Proceed” status from Amazon’s application. Last week, the organization said it would grant Amazon’s request for the name following a 30-day period of public comment.

That decision has led to Peru’s Martin Vizcarra, Colombia’s Ivan Duque, Ecuador’s Lenin Moreno and Bolivia’s Evo Morales promising to work together to protect their countries from “inadequate governance of the internet,” reports Reuters.

In a joint statement, the four presidents said the decision sets “a grave precedent by prioritizing private commercial interests above the considerations of state public policies, the rights on indigenous people and the preservation of the Amazon.”

ICANN last week said it "remained hopeful that additional time could lead to a mutually acceptable solution regarding those applications. However, ACTO and the Amazon corporation were unable to come to a mutually acceptable solution or agree on an extension of time for continued discussions."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/80248-south-american-countries-slam-icann-over-amazon-domain.html

 

[Squid Surprise]

I fail to see how having .Amazon registered to a company could possibly impact the sovereignty of any nation... reminds me of when the WWE had to change their name from WWF because the World Wildlife Foundation felt there was confusion.... I’d like to find out how many Hulk Hogan fans surfed to wwf.com expecting to save the whales....

 

[Uncle Al]

Isn't AmazonRiver.com available to them? Would seem like a more appropriate web site / name .... no?

 

[EClyde]

This is big! Bigger then when the fight raged over whether folk from Delaware were to be called Delawarians or Delawarites. It's gonna be a dogfight

 

[lipe123]

Uhm how dumb is this?! If they don't like it why don't they just rename the stupid river to something else to show everyone who's boss?

Why would a river need a domain name?
I runs though a ton of countries so even if it was granted its own domain, which one would it belong to?

Srsly just rename the river to the "We-dont-understand-technology.com" that way you have the domain name and the river name nicely buttoned down.

*sigh* Imagine apple gets the .apple domain, all the apple farmers would have to start growing iphones on their trees instead!

 

[psycros]

It was always ridiculous that Amazon was even allowed to use that name for a company. This only compounds the absurdity. It also opens to the door to completely customized TLDs where the deepest pockets can effectively trademark large swaths of the Internet. Not a good development.

 

[Kibaruk]

Of course this is not a big deal for the average 'Murican (Please read quoted comment below), but how would you feel if for example, the .us was used as a matchmaking site domain... I'm pretty sure you would use your 2nd amendment to go in arms against such heresy... or .nasa to be part of the nasal spray industry... yes, it's not something that would be truly big however your political parties would certainly use it to cause all kind of havoc, which is what's going on right now.

Not that the Amazon river has been a nest of species discoveries, or it's the longest in the world, nor...

Uhm how dumb is this?! If they don't like it why don't they just rename the stupid river to something else to show everyone who's boss?

This truly feels like the most stupid comment in the whole internet, and that's not an easy feat, you deserve an award of sorts.

 

[lipe123]

Of course this is not a big deal for the average 'Murican (Please read quoted comment below), but how would you feel if for example, the .us was used as a matchmaking site domain... I'm pretty sure you would use your 2nd amendment to go in arms against such heresy... or .nasa to be part of the nasal spray industry... yes, it's not something that would be truly big however your political parties would certainly use it to cause all kind of havoc, which is what's going on right now.

Not that the Amazon river has been a nest of species discoveries, or it's the longest in the world, nor...

Uhm how dumb is this?! If they don't like it why don't they just rename the stupid river to something else to show everyone who's boss?

This truly feels like the most stupid comment in the whole internet, and that's not an easy feat, you deserve an award of sorts.

Thanks I was using hyperbole to describe how stupid the situation is. Not sure if you got that but either way I'll take the award.

Your response of "imagine .us got used for something else" is completely invalid as .us is a country designation. Every country has its own domain already set in stone and no business is going to take that away. But complaining about objects or natural things like rivers/mountains/pebbles losing their rights to a domain name is *****ic. The argument that it infringes on the sovereignty of the countries the river flows through is also dumb and completely invalid.

Domain names are for business use by their very definition. If the amazon river has a problem with the amazon company they should have settled that score AGES ago and not make a stink about it now.

 

[spritz]

They can't "rename the stupid river", as somebody here said. As a South American, I feel that perhaps a non-US perspective is missing. The term "Amazon" refers to a whole geographical region that includes the Amazon rainforest, not just the river. When people in South America talk about it, they refer to the area, the towns, the people, and also of course the rainforest and the river. Undoubtedly, when this term is mentioned in South American countries, people think first about the geographical term, and second about the American company, which is known because of the news, but does not even have a local presence. You can't "buy something on Amazon" there, unless you're getting something shipped from the US, so it's relatively rare that people even use it. Amazon the company does _not_ have there the ubiquitous presence it has in the US, not by a long shot. Some people here seem to think that what matters in the US matters equally everywhere else. Far from true. And even if Amazon.com had a strong presence in South America, that doesn't take away the fact that the name is also very meaningful there in a different way, and many businesses and people and towns need their association to the name.

I think the best comparison would be as if a South American company called "California" wanted to appropriate that domain name, and the state of California couldn't use its own name for the myriad reasons it might need it for. The ICANN is an international organization. It's not supposed to be US-centric.

 

[Squid Surprise]

They can't "rename the stupid river", as somebody here said. As a South American, I feel that perhaps a non-US perspective is missing. The term "Amazon" refers to a whole geographical region that includes the Amazon rainforest, not just the river. When people in South America talk about it, they refer to the area, the towns, the people, and also of course the rainforest and the river. Undoubtedly, when this term is mentioned in South American countries, people think first about the geographical term, and second about the American company, which is known because of the news, but does not even have a local presence. You can't "buy something on Amazon" there, unless you're getting something shipped from the US, so it's relatively rare that people even use it. Amazon the company does _not_ have there the ubiquitous presence it has in the US, not by a long shot. Some people here seem to think that what matters in the US matters equally everywhere else. Far from true. And even if Amazon.com had a strong presence in South America, that doesn't take away the fact that the name is also very meaningful there in a different way, and many businesses and people and towns need their association to the name.

I think the best comparison would be as if a South American company called "California" wanted to appropriate that domain name, and the state of California couldn't use its own name for the myriad reasons it might need it for. The ICANN is an international organization. It's not supposed to be US-centric.

Apparently the sarcasm was lost on you...

And for the same reason the company "Amazon" means little to these people, there is no reason for them to have the domain ".Amazon" reserved for them.... I haven't seen a .Canada domain around, yet my country continues to muddle about....

.NorthAmerica doesn't exist either, yet our continent abides....

The people of South America have been quite fine without having .Amazon and will be unaffected by .Amazon pointing to a US company in the future...

 

[NightAngel79]

Isn't AmazonRiver.com available to them? Would seem like a more appropriate web site / name .... no?

So you didn't actually read the article huh? lol