Amazon's Quest for Web Names Draws Foes

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Updated March 10, 2013, 7:19 p.m. ET
Amazon's Quest for Web Names Draws Foes
By GREG BENSINGER

Large and small companies are vying for control of an array of new Internet domain names, but Amazon.com Inc.'s plans are coming under particular scrutiny.

Two publishing industry groups, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, are objecting to the online retailer's request for ownership of new top-level domain names that are part of a long-awaited expansion of the Web's addressing scheme. They argue that giving Amazon control over such addresses—which include ".book," ".author" and ".read"—would be a threat to competition and shouldn't be allowed.

"Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive," wrote Scott Turow, Authors Guild president, to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, the nonprofit that oversees the world's Internet domain names. "The potential for abuse seems limitless." ...

According to ICANN's website, Amazon is seeking dozens of domain names, including ".movie," ".app," and ".wow," as well as a number in foreign languages. Others would apparently be tied to Amazon products, such as ".kindle" for the company's Kindle line of e-readers and ".prime" for the membership program of the same name.