Publishers oppose Amazon's bid to gain Web names - WSJ

A zoomed image of a computer screen showing the Amazon logo is seen in Vienna November 26, 2012.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two publishing industry groups, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, are opposing Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) request to own new domain names, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The organizations argue that allowing Amazon to have such domain addresses that end in suffixes such as ".book," ".author" and ".read" would be a threat to competition, the paper said.

Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N) has also opposed Amazon's request, the paper said.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the objections, the paper said.

Last year the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers began a process to allow organizations to register for new Web address suffixes, other than ".com" and ".edu."

The ambitious plan to liberalize Internet addresses attracted 1,930 applications, almost half of them from north America, with Amazon and Google Inc (GOOG.O) applying for dozens of domains including .cloud, .buy and .book.

(Reporting By Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Stephen Coates)