ICANN Frees .Amazon Domain For Company Delegation

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has lifted the stop on delegating the .amazon top-level domain, effectively handing it to the company over the South American region, depending on agreement with states in the Amazon region.

At its meeting in Barcelona today, the private net governance body decided that following intensive negotiations between Amazon Inc and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO), representing the countries in the Amazon region, the retailer’s application for the TLD could proceed according to the 2012 new TLD program.

Amazon must make sure to publish safeguards for the zones, so-called “Public Interest Commitments,” the board decision states.

While “recognizing the public policy issues raised through GAC advice on these applications,” the parties according to information from ICANN’s management “identified a path forward,” allowing the board to take “this action today to allow the .AMAZON applications to move forward in a manner that would align with GAC advice and inputs on this topic.”

Amazon in several rounds has offered ACTO Amazon Kindles “preloaded with mutually agreed upon content, and similar Amazon.com services and products in an amount not to exceed 5 million dollars.”

The concerns on the side of the Amazon countries nevertheless remain according to the communique of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). Governments there took note of Colombia’s letters to ICANN expressing its objection to a “delegation without consent by the ACTO member.” A “mutually acceptable solution” for the Amazon countries still has to be worked out, according to the GAC.

The GAC also once more pushed the ICANN board to deal with requests from international organisations to protect their names in the new TLD space. Representatives from the industry are concerned that GAC requests with regard to IGO names and also geographical names could lead to blocking many general names in the namespace.

 

Image Credits: Mongabay