Amazon.com should share web domain name rights, Brazil says

Brazil has proposed a compromise to a seven-year battle that has quietly raged over the Amazon.com internet domain: let the nations bordering the world’s largest rainforest co-govern the digital address with the biggest online retailer.

Amazon.com Inc has been seeking rights to the domain name since 2012. But Amazon basin countries Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname have argued that it refers to their geographic region and thus belongs to them and should not be “the monopoly of one company.”

The global Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees internet addresses, has extended until this month a deadline for the parties to reach a deal.

“As a compromise solution for the ‘dot Amazon’ issue, we proposed our participation in the governance of this digital territory, with a view to safeguarding and promoting the natural, cultural and symbolic heritage of the Amazon region on the Internet,” Brazil’s deputy Foreign Minister Otavio Brandelli proposed on Wednesday.

“This would be an innovative mechanism, setting a positive precedent of public-private partnership in the development of internet governance,” he said in a statement to Reuters, without explaining how it would work.

He said the proposal would give Amazon.com the chance to show Amazon countries and public opinion that it is “a fully responsible corporation, capable of reconciling commercial interest with values cherished by its customers.”

ICANN placed Amazon.com’s request on a “Will not proceed” footing in 2013, but an independent review process sought by the company faulted that decision and ICANN then told the Amazon basin nations they had to reach an agreement with the company.

Amazon.com has offered millions of dollars in free Kindles and hosting by Amazon web services to resolve the issue, according to various reports.