The Association of American Publishers criticized Amazon’s bid for “closed generic Top-Level Domains” (gTLD), an attempt for “exclusive” control of the new .book domain name.

Click here to read a PDF copy of the letter. Nine different companies have applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for access to the undoubtedly useful Internet domain name extension, including Amazon and R.R. Bowker.

AAP general counsel Allan Adler explained in a letter to ICANN:

In short, Amazon makes clear that it seeks exclusive control of the “.book” string solely for its own business purposes, notwithstanding the broad range of other companies, organizations and individuals that have diverse interests in the use of this gTLD or its second-level domains by others or themselves. AAP believes that ICANN approval of such an application would not be in the public interest.

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Allan Adler, who has led the Association of American Publishers government and legal affairs since 1996, has been named General Counsel and Vice President, Government Affairs, it was announced by Tom Allen, President and CEO of the publishing industry’s largest trade association.

Allan Adler has been named general counsel and VP, Government Affairs at Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Before taking this post, he had served as VP of legal and government affairs, leading that side of the AAP since 1996.

He serves as the US book and publishing industry’s chief representative with Congress, the Administration, federal agencies and international bodies such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and oversees strategies for AAP members’ engagement with those authorities … For the past two decades, Adler has led advocacy with respect to all major AAP policy decisions related to copyright protection, freedom of expression, digital issues, piracy, privacy rights, product safety and public access to scholarly publications.  He has presented testimony in hearings before various Congressional committees and participated in numerous rulemaking and other proceedings before the US Copyright Office.