Amazon Faces Opposition Over Bid to Grab Web Names

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amazon phone 630 copyAmazon‘s (NASDAQ:AMZN) effort to obtain the rights to three Internet domain names from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has drawn the ire of publishers and writers.

The Authors Guild and The Association of American Publishers (AAP) have sent a letter to ICANN warning that allowing a single company to control the .book, .author and .read domains would harm competition in the publishing industry. The Guild’s president, novelist Scott Turow, argues that the potential for a companies to abuse their position and “entrench their market power” by holding those domains “seems limitless,” PC Magazine notes.

Authors and publishers aren’t the only ones concerned by Amazon’s attempt to secure the domains. Rival bookseller, Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) conveyed its objection to Amazon’s bid in early March, arguing that allowing Amazon to control the .book domain would have “disastrous consequences” for the industry and consumers.

Last year, ICANN unveiled a list of 1,930 proposed domain names. The organization is now determining who gets to control the new domains.

Amazon is also vying to purchase a number of other domain names, including .app, .audible, .cloud, .fire., .map and .amazon. The company did not offer a comment to PC Magazine. A number of other companies, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) are bidding to obtain new domains.

Shares of Amazon slipped fractionally in Monday midday trading.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2013/03/amazon-faces-opposition-over-bid-to-grab-web-names/.

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