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1/5NEWS LESSONS / Amazon v the Amazon / Advanced

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WEBSITE Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013

Amazon v the Amazon

Level 3 Advanced

Key words2

Warmer1

Match these words from the article with their denitions below. Then nd them in the article to read them

in context.

A domain name is an address on the internet. .gov, .com, .edu and .org are four of the current 22

generic top-level domain names (gTLDs; see the article for more details). How many websites with these

gTLDs can you name in two minutes?

1. a person or company that sells goods directly to the public for their own use __________________

2. mysterious and difcult to understand __________________

3. the activity of buying and selling goods on the internet __________________

4. relating to people who lived in a place for a very long time before other people came to live

there __________________

5. If a fact, statement or judgment is __________________, many people argue about it.

6. the process of governing a country or organization __________________

7. If two or more things are easily __________________, it is easy to recognize the differences between them.

8. causing disagreement between people or groups __________________

9. mean something __________________

10. publically supported __________________

11. many people argue about it __________________

12. an ofcial decision to prevent any increase in the number, level or rate of something __________________

contested arcane freeze disputed distinguished contentious

e-commerce governance indigenous retailer endorsed denote



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Amazon v the Amazon

Level 3 Advanced

Amazon v the Amazon: internet

retailer in domain name battle

Brazil and Peru governments say company

should not prot from an address that refers to

an important geographical area

Jonathan Watts, Latin America correspondent

25 April, 2013

1 When you see the wordAmazon, whats therst thing that springs to mind the worlds

biggest forest, the longest river or the largestinternet retailer and which do you consider

most important?

2 These questions have risen to the fore in anarcane, but hugely important, debate about howto redraw the boundaries of the internet. Braziland Peru have lodged objections to a bid madeby the US e-commerce giant for a prime newpiece of cyberspace: .amazon.

3 The Seattle-based company has applied for itsbrand to be a top-level domain name (currently.com), but the South American governmentsargue this would prevent the use of this internet

address for environmental protection, thepromotion of indigenous rights and other publicinterest uses.

4 Along with dozens of other disputed claims tonames, including .patagonia and .shangrila,the issue cuts to the heart of debates about thepurpose and governance of the internet.

5 Until now, the differences between commercial,governmental and other types of identity wereeasily distinguished in every internet address by.com, .gov and 20 other categories.

6 But these categories or generic top-level

domains (gTLDs) as they are technically known are about to undergo the biggest expansion

since the start of the worldwide web.

7 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Namesand Numbers (ICANN) a US-based non-prot

organization that plays a key role in cyberspacegovernance has received bids (each

reportedly worth almost $200,000) for hundredsof new gTLDs to add to the existing 22.

8 Amazon has applied for dozens of newdomains, including .shop, .song, .book and.kindle. But its most contentious application is

for its own brand.

9 Brazil and Peru have called for the .amazonapplication to be withdrawn, saying a private

company should not be assigned a name thatdenotes an important geographical area thatspans their territories and is also used forcertain regions and cross-border organizations.

10 Allowing private companies to registergeographical names as gTLDs to reinforce theirbrand strategy or to prot from the meaning ofthese names does not serve, in our view, thepublic interest, the Brazilian Ministry of Scienceand Technology said.

11 Brazil said its views were endorsed last monthby other members of the Amazon CooperationTreaty (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana,Suriname and Venezuela).

12 Dozens of other protests have also beenregistered over proposed top-level domains thattake geographical, cultural or contestedbrand names.

13 Argentina has lodged an expression of itsunhappiness that the US outdoor clothingretailer, Patagonia, is claiming a domain namethat has been known far longer as a regionof spectacular beauty that also has its ownparliament. Argentina rejects the .patagoniarequest for a new generic top-level domain,the government notes in an appeal. Patagoniais a relevant region for the countrys economybecause it has oil, shing, mining andagriculture resources. It is also a region with avibrant local community and it is a majortourist destination.

14 Less convincingly, China has disputed thedomain .shangrila, which is proposed by ahotel group of the same name. The authoritiesin Beijing say the shangri-la label belongs to aregion in Yunnan province, although it was onlyrenamed as such in 2001 (long after the hotelgroup was formed) so that the local communitycould cash in on the fame of the ctionalparadise depicted in the novel, Lost Horizon, byBritish author James Hilton.

15 At a conference in April in Beijing, ICANNsGovernmental Advisory Committee theprimary voice of national governments withinthe institution recommended a freeze ondisputed proposals. They are expected to bediscussed again at a meeting in Durban in July.The rst approved domain names should be in

use before the end of 2013.

Guardian News and Media 2013

First published in The Guardian, 25/04/13


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NEWS LESSONS / Amazon v the Amazon / Advanced

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013

Amazon v the Amazon

Level 3 AdvancedComprehension check3

Multi-word expressions4

Defning expressions5

Answer the questions using information from the text.

1. How many generic top-level domain names are currently in use?

2. How many new domain names have been requested?

3. When will some of the accepted domain names be in use?

4. Which three companies requesting new domain names are mentioned in the text?

5. What lines of business are these companies in?

6. Which disputed domain names do they want?

7. Who disputes each claim?8. What reasons do they give for disputing the claims?

a. Write denitions for the following expressions from the text.

e-commerce giant

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

brand strategy

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

b. In pairs, choose four more expressions from the text (do not write them down) and write denitionsfor them.

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

c. Give your denitions to another pair, who should nd the expressions in the text.

Find four multi-word expressions in the text that mean:

1. appears suddenly or immediately in your thoughts (para 1)

2. goes straight to the central point of (para 4)

3. asked that something be removed or taken back (para 9)

4. is not of benet to the general public (para 10)


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NEWS LESSONS / Amazon v the Amazon / Advanced

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013

Amazon v the Amazon

Level 3 AdvancedDebate6

Hold a debate in which each team states their position and tries to convince ICANN that Amazon either

should or should not have control of the domain name .amazon.

Team A represents Amazon, the e-commerce company.

Team B represents the Amazon Cooperation Treaty.

Your teacher represents ICANN and will make the nal decision.

Teams A and B Make notes and write your opening statement for the debate. Before debating, both teams

should anticipate what arguments the other team will come up with and decide how they will answer them.



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Amazon v the Amazon

Level 3 Advanced

KEY

1 Warmer

Possible answers

nasa.gov

google.com

facebook.com

youtube.com

yahoo.com

twitter.comharvard.edu

wikipedia.org

wordpress.org

2 Key words

1. retailer

2. arcane

3. e-commerce

4. indigenous

5. disputed

6. governance

7. distinguished

8. contentious

9. denote

10. endorsed

11. contested

12. freeze

3 Comprehension check

1. 22

2. hundreds

3. before the end of 2013

4. Amazon; Patagonia; Shangri-La

5. e-commerce; outdoor clothing retailer; hotel group

6. .amazon; .patagonia; .shangrila

7. Brazil and Peru, and other members of the Amazon

Cooperation Treaty; Argentina; China

8. .amazon It would prevent the use of this internet

address for environmental protection, the promotion

of indigenous rights and other public interest uses.;

A private company should not be assigned a name

that denotes an important geographical area and

is also used for certain regions and cross-border

organizations.; It does not serve the public interest.

.patagonia The name has been known far

longer as a region of spectacular beauty.; It is an

important region for the countrys economy.

.shangrila The label belongs to a region in

Yunnan province.

4 Multi-word expressions

1. springs to mind

2. cuts to the heart of

3. called for something to be withdrawn

4. does not serve the public interest

5 Dening expressions

Suggested answers for part a a very large and successful company that buys and

sells goods on the internet

long-term marketing support for a brand

6 Debate

Teachers note:In a large group, a panel of students

can be ICANN. Ask them to make notes while they are

listening to the arguments.

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