Bits Blog: Amazon Rejected as Domain Name After South American Objections

Mauricio Lima for The New York Times A group of Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, argued that the “.amazon” domain was too intrinsically connected to the regions and communities within their borders to allow the online retailer access to use it.

  A group of Latin American countries appears to have succeeded in an effort to block Amazon, the online retailer, from using .amazon as a new suffix for Internet addresses.

A committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, an international governance group for the Internet, recommended this week that. amazon not be approved for use as a so-called global top-level domain — the letters that follow the dot in Internet addresses.

At a meeting in Durban, South Africa, Icann reviewed applications for new domain suffixes like these in what has been billed as the biggest expansion of Internet addresses. Scores of companies, countries and organizations have applied to use their names or other terms as global top-level domains, alongside the handful of existing ones like .com and .org.

While Icann has approved several new dot-terms, including the Chinese word for game and the Russian word for network, English-language brand names derived from geographical locations have proved to be more complicated.

In the run-up to the Durban meeting, a group of Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, sent a letter to Icann, in which they argued that .amazon should be rejected because a river runs through it.

“In particular ‘.amazon’ is a geographic name that represents important territories of some of our countries, which have relevant communities, with their own culture and identity directly connected with the name,” the letter said. “Beyond the specifics, this should also be understood as a matter of principle.”

The group had also objected to another application, from the outdoor clothier Patagonia, to use its name as an address suffix. That application was withdrawn before the Durban meeting.

The decision on. amazon, by the Governmental Advisory Committee of Icann, is not necessarily final. The Icann board could overrule the committee, though in practice it rarely does so.

“We’re reviewing the G.A.C. advice and we look forward to working with Icann and other stakeholders to resolve these issues as the process moves forward,” Amazon said in a statement.

One thing that remains unclear is why the United States government, represented in the Government Advisory Committee by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the Commerce Department, went along with the decision.

The administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Before the meeting, it sent a letter to Icann in which it outlined its support for the use of names like. amazon as Internet suffixes, but added that it would stand aside if other governments objected.

“The United States affirms our support for the free flow of information and freedom of expression and does not view sovereignty as a valid basis for objecting to the use of terms, and we have concerns about the effect of such claims on the integrity of the process,” the administration said in the letter. “However, in the event the parties cannot reach agreement by the time this matter comes up for decision in the G.A.C., the United States is willing in Durban to abstain and remain neutral.”

One analyst said that while the specific reasons the United States government went along with the rejection were unclear, its position on Internet governance issues had been weakened by the recent leaks of information about a vast digital surveillance program by the National Security Agency. Several countries in South America — though not those in the Amazon basin or the Patagonian region — have offered the leaker, Edward J. Snowden, asylum.

“It is clear that the leaks of sensitive national security information have severely weakened the U.S. government’s ability to fight for our economic interests and have left the U.S. isolated in the G.A.C.,” said Nao Matsukata, chief executive of FairWinds Partners, a Washington-based consulting firm that specializes in domain name strategy.

Milton Mueller, a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, said there might have been an element of horse-trading. By yielding to a broader consensus on the advisory committee, Washington could have been seeking to shore up broader support for Icann, whose control over the Internet address system has long irked the governments of countries like Russia and China.

“My hypothesis is that the U.S. government has been scared to death for some time that if G.A.C. doesn’t get enough of what it wants, governments will give up on the whole Icann regime,” Mr. Mueller said.

American Cinematheque, Amity Team Up for Beyond Fest

The American Cinematheque has partnered with Amity, a creative collective, to create a new genre film festival that will be centered in Los Angeles.

Titled Beyond Fest, the festival will run October 13 to 27 at the Egyptian Theatre and will feature “the elite in horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and badass cinema,” according to the organizers. Premieres, retrospectives and special events will be the order of the day.

While plans are still coming together, one event has been put in the books: the first Los Angeles performance of Italian prog rock band Gobllin, which is best known for working with horror maven Dario Argento.

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Goblin will perform a full, live set that will include Argento’s giallo classics Suspiria, Tenebrae, and Deep Red, and George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Immediately following the performance will be an rare 35mm screening of Argento’s 1975 cult classic Deep Red.

The performance, the first in the band’s 40 year history, is set for October 22. Tickets go on sale Saturday, June 29 at 10 a.m. through Brown Paper Tickets.

"There are so many great films being produced in every corner of the world, and we want to reflect that when programming Beyond Fest," said Grant Moninger, American Cinematheque programmer. "By focusing on world cinema, it gives us the opportunity not only to select the very best films out there, but it also allows us to program films that might not be seen in a theater in the US."

Other program notes will be dropping in the coming weeks.

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Egypt violence builds, American among dead

Protesters gather as they chant anti-President Mohamed Mursi slogans during a protest in Tahrir square in Cairo June 28, 2013.

ALEXANDRIA/CAIRO - Two people, one an American, were killed when protesters stormed an office of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria, adding to growing tension ahead of mass rallies aimed at unseating the Islamist president.

A third man was killed and 10 injured in an explosion during a protest in Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal. Police on Saturday said the cause was unclear but protesters, believing it was a bomb, attacked an Islamist party office in the city.

Egypt's leading religious authority warned of "civil war" after violence in the past week that had already left several dead and hundreds injured. They backed President Mohamed Mursi's offer to talk to opposition groups ahead of Sunday's protests.

The United Nations, European Union and United States have appealed for restraint and urged Egypt's deadlocked political leaders to step back from a confrontation threatening the new democracy that emerged from the Arab Spring revolution of 2011.

The U.S. embassy said in a statement it was evacuating non-essential staff and family members and renewed a warning to Americans not to travel to Egypt unless they had to.

The Muslim Brotherhood said eight of its offices had been attacked on Friday, including the one in Alexandria. Officials said more than 70 people had been injured in the clashes in the city. One was shot dead and a young American man who was using a small camera died after being stabbed in the chest.

A Brotherhood member was also killed overnight in an attack on a party office at Zagazig, in the heavily populated Nile Delta, where much of the recent violence has been concentrated. Mursi's movement said five supporters in all had died this week.

"Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war," said clerics at Cairo's ancient Al-Azhar institute, one of the most influential centers of scholarship in the Muslim world.

In a statement broadly supportive of Mursi, they backed his offer of dialogue and blamed "criminal gangs" who besieged mosques for the violence. The Brotherhood warned of "dire consequences" and "a violent spiral of anarchy".

It accused liberal leaders, including former U.N. diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, of personally inciting violence by hired "thugs" once loyal to ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Opposition leaders condemned the violence. The army, which has warned it could intervene if political leaders lose control, issued a statement saying it had deployed across the country to protect citizens and installations of national importance.

In the capital, Cairo, tens of thousands turned out for rival events some miles apart and there was little trouble. An Islamist rally included calls to reconciliation. On Tahrir Square, cradle of the uprising against Mubarak, there was a festive atmosphere and a determination to shake Mursi on Sunday.

In Alexandria, as several thousand anti-Mursi protesters marched along the seafront, a Reuters reporter saw about a dozen men throw rocks at guards outside the Brotherhood office. They responded. Bricks and bottles flew. Guns were fired.

Officials said dozens were wounded by birdshot. The party office was ransacked and documents were burned, watched by jubilant youths chanting against Egypt's Islamist leaders.

In Port Said, a bastion of anti-Islamist sentiment, police had suspected an accident but later said a device exploded among protesters. Canal traffic has not been affected by violence.

CAIRO CALM

Islamists gathered round a Cairo mosque after weekly prayers to show support for Mursi. His opponents hope millions will turn out on Sunday to demand he step down, a year to the day after he was sworn in as Egypt's first freely chosen leader.

Mursi, backed by the Brotherhood, has dismissed such demands as an assault on democracy, setting up an angry confrontation.

"I came to support the legitimate order," said Ahmed al-Maghrabi, 37, a shopkeeper from the Nile Delta city of Mansoura whose hand bore grazes from street fighting there this week. "I am with the elected president. He needs to see out his term."

Some speakers reflected fear and anger among Islamists that opponents aim to suppress them as Mubarak did. But there was also talk from the podium of the need for dialogue - a concern also of international powers worried by the bitter polarization.

A few hundred opposition protesters gathered outside the presidential palace, a focus for Sunday's rally. Mursi has moved elsewhere. Thousands turned out after dark in Tahrir Square, waving national flags and sampling street food.

Abdelhamid Nada, a 32-year-old accountant, had come from the provinces with eight friends to camp out "until Mursi goes". "The Muslim Brotherhood has no plan at all," he said, standing by his white tent. "They don't have any economic plan, they don't have any social plan, they don't have any political plan."

STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

The army, which heeded mass protests in early 2011 to push Mubarak aside, has warned it will intervene again if there is violence, and to defend the "will of the people". Both sides believe that means the military may support their positions.

The United States, which funds Egypt's army as it did under Mubarak, has urged compromise and respect for election results. Egypt's 84 million people, control of Suez and its peace treaty with Israel all contribute to its global strategic importance.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged Egyptians to respect "universal principles of peaceful dialogue". European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called for peaceful protests, building trust and a "spirit of dialogue and tolerance".

In Alexandria, opposition marchers said they feared the Brotherhood was usurping the revolution to entrench its power and Islamic law. Others had economic grievances, among them huge lines for fuel caused by supply problems and panic buying.

"I've nothing to do with politics, but with the state we're in now, even a stone would cry out," said 42-year-old accountant Mohamed Abdel Latif. "There are no services, we can't find diesel or gasoline. We elected Mursi, but this is enough.

"Let him make way for someone else who can fix it."

It is hard to gauge how many may turn out on Sunday, but even those sympathetic to Islamic ideas are frustrated by the economic slump and many blame the government.

Previous protest movements since the fall of Mubarak have failed to gather momentum, however, among a population anxious for stability and fearful of further economic hardship.

Toasting American Fashion in Beijing

“We went to the Great Wall and rode down the toboggan twice!” exclaimed Marchesa designer Keren Craig during a party that Chinese retail impresarios Silas Chou and his daughter, Veronica Chou, hosted at their Beijing residence on Friday. While her design partner—Georgina Chapman—was absent, Craig was joined by Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, and Rag & Bone’s David Neville and Marcus Wainwright, all of whom had traveled to the Far East as part of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund’s Americans in China initiative. Launched in 2012, the program aims to introduce a cross section of American design to the buoyant Chinese market.

Earlier in the day, the trio of U.S. brands presented their Fall ’13 ranges at the restored Ming Dynasty City Wall in the heart of old Beijing. Each collection was reassembled on a coterie of Chinese models, including Liu Wen, Xiao Wen, and Ming Xi.

“These designers represent the diversity of American fashion, from contemporary wear to high fashion and the red carpet,” said CFDA CEO Steven Kolb. “For all of us, China is this great unknown market,” he added, noting that over the next five years, the CFDA will expand its global programming.



The Rag & Bone boys divulged that this was their first trip to Beijing. “No one speaks English!” Neville joked. “But in all seriousness, we clearly see opportunity in China. There are just a few other territories we are focusing our business on first, like the U.S. and London.” The Marchesa team hopes to introduce a new diffusion line—Marchesa Voyage—to the market as early as August, and Proenza Schouler plans to continue learning the Chinese market. “There’s definitely room for growth,” said Hernandez. Each label is currently stocked at multi-brand retailers like Lane Crawford, or Joyce in Greater China, and none foresee establishing a freestanding mono-brand store soon.

After spending the evening mingling with the likes of Vogue China editor Angelica Cheung, wife of U.S. Ambassador to China Mona Lee Locke, and Chinese actress Carina Lau, hostess Veronica Chou hopped a flight with her father to New York. “We’ve seen the trend of European luxury brands entering the Chinese market, but now is the time for contemporary American brands to thrive, as Chinese consumers are becoming more curious and mature,” she offered before leaving. “This would have never have happened ten years ago!” Photos: Neil Rasmus/BFAnyc.comtags: Americans in China, CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, David Neville, Georgina Chapman, Jack McCollough, Keren Craig, Lazaro Hernandez, Marchesa, Marcus Wainwright, Proenza Schouler, Rag & Bone, Steven Kolb

 

'American Idiot' Actor Joins Stephen King Adaptation 'A Good Marriage'

Rising actor Theo Stockman has joined Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia in A Good Marriage, the indie adaptation of Stephen King’s 2010 novella.

The movie, currently in production, is being directed by Peter Askin and sees Allen play a woman named Darcy, who discovers the sinister and gruesome double life that her husband and the father of their two children, played by LaPaglia, has been living.

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Stockman is playing their son, a man who made a name for himself in the advertising world and is enjoying his newfound success.

King wrote the screenplay.

Stockman has appeared in shows such as Blue Bloods, Private Practice, CSI, Nurse Jackie and 30 Rock. He also appeared in Broadway productions of American Idiot and Hair.

He is repped by APA and Gregory Russell at Regarding Entertainment.