Amazon has not made itself very popular this week. Attempts from the company to buy top-level domains (TLDs) like .book, .author and .read have drawn complaints Stateside from the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.

The push for more web suffixes is a result of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) making different kinds of domain names eligible for purchase. So, if you want to buy a .app or .home domain name - you can.

Predictably, this has created the digital equivalent of a schoolyard scramble as companies look to grab hold of the most lucrative offerings. While Amazon has put forth a request for a number of different TLDs, the book-related options have come under fire.

"We strongly object to ICANN's plans to sell the exclusive top-level domain rights for generic book-industry terms, such as .book, .author, and .read," wrote Scott Turow, the novelist and president of the Authors Guild, in an open letter to ICANN.

"Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive, allowing already dominant, well-capitalized companies to expand and entrench their market power. The potential for abuse seems limitless."

ICANN will consider objections before it allows a company or an individual to purchase one of the new domain names.

So far, Amazon hasn't commented on the complaints levelled against it but the company will have to stump up $25,000 a year to retain each domain name it purchases.

Via: Telegraph