this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Fiction Books

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Barnes and noble wanted one of these domains and sent an appeal to ICANN. They lost the appeal.

Amazon operates these domains within a category of new domain names deemed “closed generics”, which are domain names that companies have successfully bid on or outright paid to get provisioned and own them for their own use and no one else’s. There has been persistent concern raised that this might create unfair monopolies especially for online shopping.

Amazon is the largest holder of closed generic domains on the internet. Nearly all of their domains they own are not able to be purchased and are for Amazon use only. There has been no consequences for this action and it seems unlikely there ever will for the foreseeable future as well.

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I was so heartbroken when I realized lemmy.read cant be bought. Literature.cafe is cute and all but lemmy read sounds like let me read ;(

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I prefer literature.cafe tbh. Still stupid though

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I agree, it’s an adorable name as well 🥰

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

they own the thing at the right so you can't have even wkdnenwooxofkenjd.read? Didn't know you can own that

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a pretty new thing. In recent years many new TLDs have been added.

See here for a full list currently supported on the open web: https://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt

Companies are now allowed to add TLDs to this, if they can provide a reason and the infrastructure needed to make them usable.

Amazon owning those TLDs and not allowing registration for it is not okay in my opinion. The words "book" and "read" are not exclusively used by Amazon.

Here is some insight into the process: https://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-rfp-clean-12nov10-en.pdf

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

worth noting that the infrastructure and compliance requirements are pretty damn big, and the fee for registering a gTLD is quite steep (compared to most costs related to domains and the internet)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah. You can own anything.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Nobody should be able to own an entire TLD IMO, except for .gov being restricted to the government.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even that is just ridiculous when it's only the US government.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The French government owns gouv.fr and all their stuff is a subdomain of it. I still don't understand why the US government doesn't just do the same, register gov.us and leave everyone alone with their .gov

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why is it that the French government cannot register gov.fr? Here is uk: https://www.gov.uk/

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Because we're French and our word for government is gouvernement.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

They absolutely could register gov.fr, but the french word for government is gouvernement, so they would prefer to use a contraction of that instead

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

There are laws in France that official offerings from the government, employers, etc. always have to be in French. Additional languages may be offered as secondary choices. It makes only sense to extend that to domains, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I think it would be reasonable to allow other countries .gov and or perhaps switch it to domain.country.gov

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are restrictions of various types on .edu, .mil, etc. And other countries put restrictions on their TLD’s for business & tax purposes as well. Try to register a domain with something like a .au TLD and you’ll find you need to be a citizen/resident of Australia or have an actual business presence in the country.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Those are good examples too that I overlooked.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How is this not domain squatting?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

It's only illegal for the poors.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Because $$$$$

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait a second, cocks provide value to society and many people like them. Don’t denigrate them by comparing them to Amazon

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Wait a second, Richards provide value to society and many people like them. Don’t denigrate them by comparing them to Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh god this was good 🤣

For those unaware of ICANN

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Not on my daughter's birthday!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This should be damning for ICANN. Amazon, any other corporation, or any other person shouldn't be allowed such a monopoly, but this is all dictated by money.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

ridiculous that generic TLDs weren’t offered under similar terms as standards written that include patented technologies: that they must be offered under fair and reasonable non-discriminatory terms

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Be sure, prior to buying any book or book-related thing online, to check if that 'small, independent'-looking website you're about to click on isn't a front for Amazon. In the same way record megacorps create 'fake indie' labels, Amazon creates fake indie online booksellers, or buys real ones out (for example, Abebooks https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AbeBooks).

I feel no guilt whatsoever using libgen, internet archive etc. if I cannot find a book from outside the Amazon monolith.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you want a web front end for actual independent bookstores https://bookshop.org/ is excellent. You’ll likely pay a small premium over Amazon but you will directly support independent bookstores and publishers.

Also just as a PSA, GoodReads is also Amazon owned and I recommend everyone to check out alternatives like BookWyrm (Activity Pub integrated) and StoryGraph.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

So glad to see someone else mention them. Sometimes I feel like no one knows about it. I do mainly audiobooks because of time constraints and visual problems, and I always support Firestorm Books in Asheville, NC. Cooperatively owned local bookshop a few hours from me.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Sounds like a time to seriously start supporting OpenNIC or something similar.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

No one should able to hoarde domains. That's fucked.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

ICANN is so full of shit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I would kill for one of their .fire domains

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

TLDs are a scam.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

@gabe

Well that kinda is the point when you are the biggest book seller in the world

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So why not just buy .books?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Becoming a domain registry is no easy task lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’s not a registry if nobody can register

Edit: ah the nuances of the English language. My bad, a registry and a registrar are two different things

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unsure, it would be very interesting to see if they decided to though. There was major concern raised from Barnes and Noble before Amazon swiped the domains from them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@[email protected] does amazon have any actual legal "ownership" over these TLDs? would there be repercussions for a DNS provider not acknowledging their "ownership"?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, they legally own those TLDs and there likely would be repercussions due to Amazons aggressive legal tactics whenever anyone remotely crosses them.