back to article The .amazon argy-bargy is STILL going on – and Uncle Sam has had enough with ICANN

Enough’s enough. That was the message from the US government this weekend at an international meeting where the creation of a new internet space – .amazon – was again the subject of heated debate. “The United States does not support further intervention that effectively works to prevent or delay the delegation of .amazon and …

  1. sbt
    Coat

    "...going out of its way to make the public comment period difficult to find"

    I was going to make a reference to "Beware of the leopard", but it's been done, and the Amazonians are probably not frightened of leopards, since they don't get them down there.

    Mine's the one with the matching pith helmet. -->

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: "...going out of its way to make the public comment period difficult to find"

      Although there are no leopards, there are jaguars in the Amazonian basin, and they're larger and more dangerous that leopards...

      1. sbt
        Thumb Up

        Beware of the jaguar

        Yes, that's why I thought mere leopards wouldn't bother the locals; but I did learn today that melanistic jaguars (i.e. black ones) are only about 6% of the population. For some reason, I thought they were the more common colouring.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Oh for God's sake

    Bezos's Amazon is a company, and it has it's .com address already. What are we supposed to do, have a .ibm, a .apple and a .whateverthefuckelse as well ?

    Companies are on .com, end of.

    Yes, I know that will bruise the ego of those multi-billionaires, but there should be some things that money cannot buy.

    1. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: Oh for God's sake

      Not sure if you are being serious, but I have to point out that there is a a .ibm and .apple.... Also a .microsoft, .dell, .cisco, .azure, .google and so, so many other TLDs owned by companies (Who precede to do absolutely nothing with them). And its not just tech companies, pretty much every Fortune-500 has snagged theirs. Many of them have tiny DNS zones that are just a handful of cnames to point people to the .com equivalent of the company's web presence.

      Also of note: Amazon already owns 54 other TLDs, second only to a domain-squatting company named "Binky Moon", which is owned by a former Amazon employee (owns 197 TLDs).

      If you want to see the horror that is the current DNS infrastructure see:

      https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db

      1. sbt
        Facepalm

        When money beats good governance

        If you want to see the horror that is the current DNS infrastructure see:

        https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db

        This is pretty sad; stupid, too, to set up a global namespace without a decent mechanism for resolving disputes and protecting IP. They should have stuck to the ccTLDs.

        Also ironic that .active is not active.

      2. Richard 12 Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Oh for God's sake

        .accountant and .accountants?

        Yay! Built-in phishing, given a huge green light by ICANN who just love the idea of assisting widespread fraud.

        Thanks for the list, good to have a definitive source for the blacklist.

        1. Karl Austin

          Re: Oh for God's sake

          .photo and .photos as well, probably others.

    2. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: Oh for God's sake

      Amazon.amazon seems a tad pointless, but I can see how alternative TLDs could be useful.

      I'm wondering why ICANN is dragging this out. At least I was until the ongoing costs of appeals was mentioned, then it all fell into place. ICANN don't want to resolve it. They're quite happy to let both sides duke it out while the money rolls in.

      1. Char Gar Gothakon
        Go

        Re: Oh for God's sake

        Why not change the application to .amzn? It's faster to type and everybody knows which company it belongs to

  3. IGotOut Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Here's a crazy bat shit idea...

    Neither of them can have it.

    Solved.

    Now fuck off and do some real work.

    1. Tomato42

      Re: Here's a crazy bat shit idea...

      but this will not make money for ICANN!

      1. Saruman the White Silver badge

        Re: Here's a crazy bat shit idea...

        Well at the moment ICANN won't make any money until they make a decision. The latter event seems a long, long away right now.

    2. Psmo

      Re: Here's a crazy bat shit idea...

      They tried that.

      You know lawyers? That's how you get lawyers.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Here's a crazy bat shit idea...

        Did you mean .lawyers there?

        1. Psmo
          Mushroom

          Re: Here's a crazy bat shit idea...

          Oh crap they get everywhere...

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Adrian 4

    Excellent. With that precedent I should have no trouble at all registering a tld for my new startup, Washington & Co..

  5. Blockchain commentard

    Here's my take - ACTO owns it and lets Amazon have certain ones like prime.amazon etc. Amazon only needs a few name really, not the whole domain.

    1. TDog

      sounds great

      Now can I have sue.amazon - I've got a shit shovel of lawyers wanting to register. And some Chinese firm is offering a fortune for fuck.amazon (although there is serious competition from the pron industry for that one).

    2. doublelayer Silver badge

      That's not a good idea. For one thing, the organization never asked for the domain. They just complained about Amazon getting the domain because they're annoyed. As pointless as it is for Amazon to want the domain so much and as warranted as Brazil's complaints against the U.S. are, this fight is producing no useful outcome for anybody, which the complainants know well. I have little sympathy for them. I don't really care whether Amazon gets their domain or not, but I can't see that people deliberately trying to be obstructionists have any legitimacy.

      1. 's water music

        but I can't see that people deliberately trying to be obstructionists have any legitimacy

        Sometimes obstruction is the only leverage in an asymmetric dispute since this is ultimately about politics between Brazil and the US. Presumably the US gov doesn't care enough to offer a worthwhile quid quo pro to Brazil. I have some sympathy with ICANN ducking the issue until the underlying dispute is resolved. Maybe I would feel differently if it were a another organisation caught in the crossfire other than amazon but it's hard to see how much actual pain this causes them even if I cared

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If enough people posted pictures of burned and cleared rain forest and dead animals, with the word Amazon emblazoned across them, eventually nobody would want the domain except environmentalists and they would want ,org.

  7. Claverhouse Silver badge

    Well, I don't see why some greasy little tradesman --- running Ben Nevis online fish supplies from Manhattan --- then has the right to .bennevis

    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Coat

      The locals would probably prefer .beinnnibheis

  8. pig

    This reminds me of the long fight between WWF (Animals) and WWF (Wrasslin') over WWF.com.

    Obviously someone high up at WWF (Animals) had decided they should have it, come what may.

    The arguments made by WWF (Animals) were long and, at times, convincing. It was all politics though.

    The WWF.com domain has never been used to point to the animals site.

    The same here. I don't think Brazil or any of the countries actually have any plans to use the domain.

    it is just silly politics.

    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      I'd have thought the wrestling would have more claim on a .commercial site than the animals, who'd be more logically be behind a .org.

  9. Rich 2 Silver badge

    Joing ownership?

    How would joint ownership work?

    If I point my browser to water.amazon will I get a web page describing the majesty of the Amazon river, or a a web site wanting to sell me a garden pond? With maybe a small gnome with a fishing rod.

  10. Blane Bramble

    .amazon was so important to Brazil and ACTO that they didn't bother applying for it.

  11. Swarthy
    Flame

    Does Brazil stil have a claim to .amazon

    considering how much of it they are burning, and their government's active antipathy towards anyone who views the Forest as anything other than "land in need of development"?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like