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The Nations of the Amazon Want the Name Back (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Online retail giant Amazon and the governments of eight South American countries have been given a final deadline to reach an agreement over how to use the ".amazon" web address extension after a seven-year dispute. From a report: What will happen next? It's a name that evokes epic proportions: the world's largest rainforest; a global tech company; and now a diplomatic saga nearing its end. This is the battle of the Amazon and it starts back in 2012. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that polices the world wide web's address system, decided to expand its list of generic top-level domains (gTLD) - the bit that comes after the dot in a web address. The new rules allowed companies to apply for brand new extensions, offering internet users and businesses more ways to personalise their website name and addresses. But eight countries containing the Amazon rainforest objected to the retail giant's plans concerning the new .amazon domain name.

12 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. The Nations of the Amazon Want the Name Back by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

    Jeff Bezos had this problem all worked out until his wife got the money he was going to use to buy those countries outright.

  2. Still dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I still think all these new TLDs are a stupid idea.

    1. Re:Still dumb by omnichad · · Score: 2

      Might as well go back to AOL Keywords.

    2. Re:Still dumb by msauve · · Score: 2

      Yep. But now I can make you stop using it.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    3. Re:Still dumb by Chelloveck · · Score: 2

      Chuck out the gTLDs. Yes, all of them. Go to using ccTLDs only. This very clearly defines jurisdictions in which to settle disputes. Countries can manage their TLDs any way they like. Tuvalu wants to make a buck selling *.tv to all comers? Let 'em. North Korea wants to limit *.kp to only government-approved outlets? More power to them. Some huge megacorp wants to flaunt a global online presence? They can jolly well negotiate for a name with each individual country's TLD.

      Works out for everyone. Well, except ICANN, who can't squeeze money from people for vanity TLDs any more. Sucks to be them.

      --
      Chelloveck
      I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
  3. Give them ".theamazon" instead by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Funny

    Or something similar. Problem solved.

    1. Re:Give them ".theamazon" instead by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Or maybe the Bezos entity could get ".prime", and rename itself (it's been pretty much rebranding everything as Prime lately. Amazon phones, Amazon streaming services including the ones for movies you've bought separately, etc...)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  4. Take the third option by Experiment+626 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The near eastern warrior women were Amazons a couple millennia before some web site was founded or rivers in the New World started getting European names.

  5. geographical designators by RLBrown · · Score: 5, Funny

    Traditionally, TLDs have been used to either designate a general usage category, e.g. commercial, education, military, government, and so forth, or designate a geographic area of origin, e.g. us, ch, de, and so forth. The geographical designator has been abused, for example, the use of the "tv" designation. However, if we keep with this tradition, then obviously the "amazon" domain can only refer to the geographical region of Themyscira, which by a very long period predates the usage in southern new world continent.

    --
    -- Perhaps I see less than some, but more than many.
  6. Re:Considering that those nations are busy destroy by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering that Amazon comes from ancient Greek, and refers to a tribe of women warriers, I'd say it's "first come, first served." The countries simply don't have any better claim to use of the word than the company.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  7. Peers by jythie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is always kinda scary to see individual companies acting as peers or even superiors to entire nations like this. The idea of a single private entity getting an entire gTLD for its own private use instead of it going to a general usage or geographic region should have been laughed out of the suggestion box. While I am not surprised that ICANN seriously entertained the idea, I am annoyed.

  8. Re:Considering that those nations are busy destroy by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

    Well, no, the Amazons weren't Lesbians (well, some of them may have been lesbians, but they weren't from Lesbos). In fact, they weren't even Greek, "Amazon" was simply the Greek name for them. Supposedly they originally came from Lybia but migrated to Anatolia (modern Turkey, before the Turks took it over). The general modern opinion is that they were in fact a Greek myth. Unfortunately, the fun etymology that "amazon" derives from the ancient Greek "a-mazos" "without a breast" seems to be false.