[Spec13-request] Comment by Brazil´s representative to GAC on .amazon application and PIC

Wed Oct 9 18:18:43 UTC 2019

Dear Sir/Madam,

Kindly receive the comments below on the application and PIC for .amazon presented on 12 September 2019.

The comments below are for publication in ICANN´s web page

https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/agb/base-agreement-contracting/specification-13-applications

and may be circulated with attribution.

Yours truly,

Achilles Zaluar
Ambassador
Department for Technological Promotion, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Brazil

Brazil´s representative to GAC - ICANN

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Brazil's comments
on the "PUBLIC INTEREST COMMITMENT" PROPOSED BY THE private COMPANY AMAZON INC. FOR the dot AMAZON TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS

October 9, 2019

The participation of the Government of Brazil in this public consultation, or the comments provided herein, shall not be construed as implying Brazil's acceptance of the ICANN Board decision of 15 May 2019, published on 17 May 2019, which determined the continuation of the processing of the .AMAZON applications based on a proposal that is not acceptable to the Amazon countries, in contravention of the public policy advice of the Governmental Advisory Committee and of the principle, embodied in the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, that the policy authority for Internet-related public policy issues is the sovereign right of States.

1.    Preliminary observations

We recall that the top-level domain name ".AMAZON" refers to the identity of the Amazon communities and the Amazon region, which has geographic, cultural, symbolic and natural heritage importance to the countries and peoples of the region, and that the English cognate "AMAZON" is internationally used and recognized to describe and characterize the Amazon, as exemplified by its inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List, established in accordance with the 1972 Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and the creation of the "Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization" (ACTO).

ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), by opposing the request for the ".AMAZON" top-level domains based on the objection procedure provided under the Applicant Guidebook 2012, as expressed in the Durban Communiqué (ICANN 47), recognized that the delegation of the top-level domain name ".AMAZON" to a single private company would be "problematic, e.g., potentially violate national law", and that the GAC, in the Abu Dhabi Communiqué (ICANN 60), recognized the need for a solution that is acceptable to the countries of the Amazon region as an indispensable condition for the delegation of the top-level domain name ".AMAZON".

Public policy principles supporting the protection expressly granted to terms with geographical or cultural significance under ICANN rules, whose admission in the TLD name space has been conditioned upon support or approval by the respective public authorities, shall apply a fortiori to the .AMAZON domain names, which possess a geographical and cultural meaning associated with the Amazon region and populations, as explained in the 2018 ACTO Working Group Report on the .AMAZON applications, as well as recognized in the GAC's objection to the delegation of the .AMAZON strings except on the basis of a solution acceptable to the eight Amazon countries.

The monopolization of the ".AMAZON" top-level domains, exclusively for private purposes and by a single corporate entity, would entail the "confiscation" of the entire name space semantically and inextricably associated with the region, the countries and the peoples of the Amazon. It would thus be in clear contradiction with the strong link between the term "Amazon" and the region, the countries and the peoples of the Amazon, their natural and cultural heritage and their identity on the Internet.

The delegation of the ".AMAZON" top-level domains exclusively to a private interest, to be operated as a closed brand top-level Domain, as proposed by the applicant company on April 17, 2019, would not serve the public interest, in particular that of safeguarding and promoting the natural, cultural and symbolic heritage of the countries and peoples of the Amazon, based on public policies for the Internet developed by the governments of the region.

***

2.    Objection to the proposed PIC: definition of ""terms that have a primary and well-recognized significance to the Culture and Heritage specific to the Amazonia Region".

The Public Interest Commitment proposed by the private company Amazon Inc. is built around the concept of

"terms that have a primary and well-recognized significance to the Culture and Heritage specific to the Amazonia Region".

It sets out that the company

(a)  will not use as domain names in the .AMAZON TLDs terms "that have a primary and well-recognized significance to the Culture and Heritage specific to the Amazonia Region";

(b)  will let Amazon countries use a maximum of nine (9) domain names in the .AMAZON TLDs consisting of "only those terms that have a primary and well-recognized significance to the Culture and Heritage specific to the Amazonia Region"; and

(c)  will block from all use in the .AMAZON TLDs a list of up to 1500 domain names "that have a primary and well-recognized significance to the Culture and Heritage specific to the Amazonia Region".

In an Appendix incorporated to the Public Interest Commitment, however, the company indicates that the terms with the required significance to the Culture and Heritage specific to the Amazonia region only include six (6) specific terms (the words "OTCA", "culture", "heritage", "forest", "river", "rainforest"), and the names of indigenous groups and of national symbols[1] of the Amazon countries:

"For purposes of this Policy, "Culture and Heritage specific to the Amazonia region" means the names of indigenous peoples' groups, and national symbols of the countries in the Amazonia region, and the specific terms OTCA, culture, heritage, forest, river, and rainforest, in English, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish."

Therefore, under the Public Interest Commitment proposed by the company Amazon Inc., no protection is afforded to a vast number of terms with public policy importance to the Amazon region, including terms that can cause confusion or mislead the public about matters specific to the Amazon region. For example:

- words that denote mountains, valleys, rivers, streams, islands, or any other geographical features with significance that may be located in the Amazon, as well as their cognates in different languages;
- words that denote animals, plants, medicinal herbs and other botanical products, or any other expressions of the Amazon biodiversity, as well as their cognates in different languages;
- words that denote cities, towns, villages or any other human settlements in the Amazon region, as well as their cognates in different languages;
- words that denote general economic, political or cultural activities, such as industry, hotel, tourism, ecotourism, travel, trip, government, education, university, study, research, party, and any other words employed to identify some broad spectrum of socio-economic and political practices or sectors, as well as their cognates in different languages;
- words that denote popular festivals, folkloric manifestations, beliefs or religiosity of the Amazon populations, including entities, real or mythological beings related to these activities or manifestations, as well as their cognates in different languages.

Therefore, the Public Interest Commitment proposed by the company Amazon Inc., besides not being the result of a mutually acceptable solution endorsed by the Amazon countries, as required by the GAC, does not adequately safeguard the Amazon cultural and natural heritage against the risks of monopolization by a single private company of a TLD name space inextricably associated with the Amazon region and the Amazon populations.

***

3.    Objection to the proposed PIC: GAC´s advice on "need to find a mutually acceptable solution in the case of the .amazon gTLD applications"

The GAC, the organ within ICANN responsibly for public policy, specifically in response to the October 29, 2017 Board request for information "regarding the GAC's advice that the Amazon applications should not proceed", answered the Board, through a March 15, 2018 letter, that there is a "need to find a mutually acceptable solution in the case of the .amazon gTLD applications for the countries affected and for the Amazon corporation", and transmitted to the Board the transcript of the ICANN63 GAC session on the .Amazon applications, where principles contrary to the monopolization of the .AMAZON strings were formulated.

The proposed commitment by the applicant company to "sharing the use" of the .AMAZON TLDs, under its Public Interest Commitment, does not ensure the actual sharing of the domain name space with the Amazon communities with which they are inextricably associated.
The applicant company says it is willing to make available (i) a maximum of nine (9) domain names for use by Amazon countries, (ii) to be selected from the limited list of names discussed above, (iii) not to admit any subdomain whatsoever, and (iv) to be operated by the applicant company under conditions that are entirely determined by and subject to the discretion of the applicant company.

Furthermore, the choice made by the applicant company to present a Public Interest Commitment without securing the support of the Amazon countries is not coherent with its proposed commitment to "share the use" of the .AMAZON TLDs.

Without the support of the Amazon countries and without securing their "sharing" of the .AMAZON TLDs, the entire domain name space associated with the Amazon region and the Amazon communities will be operated in ways that indisputably only serve the private interest of a single corporate entity. A decision by the ICANN Board to allow delegation under these circumstances is contrary to the public interest.

***

4.    Brazil´s request and proposed course of action

We also regret the fact that dialogue towards exploring a mutually acceptable solution was unilaterally broken up, much to the regret of Brazil and others. We were working constructively towards a compromise based on the principle of shared responsibility whem consultations were interrupted, apparently due to the fact that the company was sure its proposed PIC would be accepted by the ICANN board in its entirety. This is a hardly a situation conducive to negotiation and conciliation, and could set a bad precedent relating to the balance between public and private interests in the Internet.

In view of the above, and consistently with the positions previously expressed by the GAC and the governments of the Amazon countries, which are recognized by the GAC as the legitimate parties to the necessary mutually acceptable solution for the .AMAZON applications, Brazil respectfully requests that the ICANN Board either refer the proposed Public Interest Commitment back to the applicant company for work with the Amazon countries, or determine not to delegate the corresponding TLDs.

In this context, we reiterate our commitment to work towards a consensus solution that will allow the applicant company to pursue its legitimate commercial interests without undue limitations, while safeguarding the public policy concerns and principles outlined above. We recall, in particular, the terms of the Public Interest Commitment proposed by ACTO countries on April 18, 2019 to the applicant company, which, if compared with the applicant company's proposal, could constitute a basis for reaching a win-win solution. We consider, furthermore, that the terms and conditions under which the .AMAZON applications will be resolved may constitute an important precedent, either positive or negative, for the governance of the Internet, as it will demonstrate whether current governance structures are able or not to articulate public concerns and private interests in a constructive manner.

________________________________

[1] National symbols encompass such terms as country and territory names, which should be protected by default, even in the absence of any specific commitment.
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