17 new gTLDs were added to the DNS root zone. These were .AUTHOR, .BOOK, .BOT, .BUY, .CALL, .CIRCLE, .FAST, .GOT, .JOT, .JOY, .LIKE, .PIN, .READ, .ROOM, .SAFE, .SMILE and .ZERO. All of them are controlled by the Amazon Registry. Domain Incite draws attention to the fact that Amazon waited till the last moment to delegate the domains. All registry agreements for all domains were signed with ICANN in mid-December 2014. Amazon used almost all 12 months during which the domains should have been delegated.
The reason behind this is obviously that Amazon initially planned to use the domains as “closed generics” only for its own purposes. However, all listed names are common words. ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) was against the usage of so-called “closed generics”. As a result “closed generics” were banned and Amazon faced a dilemma: withdraw the applications or open them for third-party registrations. The company has chosen the second option but it seems they have spent a year on working out more complex registration rules. These rules haven’t been published yet; however, the experts suppose that Amazon Registry will do everything to make the registration of third parties on their domains complicated. Thus, they Amazon formally left their new domains opened for everyone, in reality they would try to turn them into “closed generics” bypassing ICANN’s ban.
