PRESS RELEASE - ILAB Joins The Protest Against Amazons Bid to Control Top-Level Domain Names
Today, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has joined the numerous other organizations, such as the Authors Guild or the American Association of Publishers, objecting to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN’s) plan to sell top-level domains to private companies. Online retail giant Amazon has bid to be the exclusive custodian of .book, .author and .read domains.
ILAB President Tom Congalton believes that placing such generic names in private hands is a threat to equal access to free markets and a threat to the nearly 2,000 small businesses that are affiliated to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.
« We have to play by the same rules », Tom Congalton said. « There is no reason why Amazon should get the exclusive rights to suffixes such as book, author or read, which are generic names any bookseller throughout the world should be allowed to use. »
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers is a federation of 22 national associations of antiquarian booksellers representing nearly 2,000 booksellers in 34 countries on all continents. It was founded in 1947 and its main object is the co-ordination of all efforts and projects relating to the development and growth of the trade of antiquarian bookselling, thereby creating friendly relations between antiquarian booksellers throughout the world. It also strives to uphold and improve professional standards in the trade, to promote honourable conduct in business, and to contribute in various ways to a broader appreciation of the history and art of the book.