Literary Associations Oppose Amazon's Attempts To Gain Control Over New Web Domains

We're all familiar with the portions of web addresses that come after the dot, such as .com and .net. Those suffixes are a basic component of the Internet as we all know and love it today. As the Internet grows and we run out of addresses using the original suffixes, new offerings are crafted by the agency to oversee top-level domains around the world.

There are some new top-level domains that will be added to expand the addressing system used on the Internet. Some the new proposed suffixes include .book, .offer, and .read. Amazon.com is making an effort to gain control of these new Internet domain names. While Amazon isn't alone in trying to gain control over these domain names, it's plans are reportedly coming under more scrutiny than others.

Two major publishing industry groups including the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers are objecting to Amazon's request for ownership of the new top-level domain names. According to these associations, placing Amazon in charge of .book, .author, and .read would be a threat to competition and shouldn't be allowed.

Authors Guild president Scott Turow said, "Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive." Barnes & Noble is also opposing Amazon's request and has filed an objection with ICANN. Amazon and other companies are vying to be the registry for these new top-level domains. Amazon is also reportedly attempting to get control of domains including .movie, .app, and .kindle. Turow says that whatever gains control over these new top-level domains will have an "enormous" competitive advantage.

[via Wall Street Journal]