Latin America, Caribbean reject Amazon, Patagonia in new GTLD

The Fourth Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) ended in Montevideo at the weekend, with them spoiling for war over attempts to have ‘dot Amazon and dot Patagonia’ registered in the new Generic Top Level Domain application system.

Latin America and the Caribbean, according to DigitalSENSE Business News investigations, comprised of over 40 countries and as members of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which words are not taken for granted as they usually have bulk of their demands scale through guidelines of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Also, DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that arising from the three-day meeting, the LAC countries in what was described as Montevideo Declaration, stressed that the importance of regional participation in the various forums for discussion on internet governance, with a view to fostering the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the internet as a fundamental part of the infrastructure of the information society.

They noted that the requests have been submitted to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to register the generic top-level domain (gTLD) names “.amazon” and “.patagonia” in several languages,

Also, they recognized the need to defend sovereignty and human rights, thus its necessary to protect the present and future rights of the countries and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean in the information society and to prevent circumstances from arising that would limit their opportunities for legitimate advancement and development in the digital environment.

Part of the declaration stated: We resolve to: “Reject any attempt to appropriate, without the consent of the respective countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, the denominations “amazon” and “patagonia” in any language, or any other generic top-level domain (gTLD) names referring to geographical areas or historical, cultural or natural features, which should be preserved as part of the heritage and cultural identity of the countries of the region."

As at press time, Amazon in most Latin America and Carribean represent a lot, especially a river in South America, which links the Peruvian Andes and flowing east through Northern Brazil to the Atlantic. Its assumed the largest river in the world in terms volume; navigable for 3700 km (2300 miles).

Already, this declaration seems to be generating hot debates online among various professionals.

 

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