.audible Domain

Founded in 1994, Amazon opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Audible, Inc., which is an Amazon subsidiary, is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible's mission is to establish literate listening as a core tool for anyone seeking to be more productive, better informed, or more thoughtfully entertained. Audible content, which includes more than 100,000 audio programs from more than 1,800 content providers that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers, is digitally downloaded and played back on over 500 popular devices.

Audible operates websites, including www.audible.com, www.audible.co.uk, www.audible.de and www.audible.fr.

The mission of the .AUDIBLE registry is:

To provide a unique and dedicated platform for Audible while simultaneously protecting the integrity of its brand and reputation.

.AUDIBLE registry will:

• Provide Audible with additional controls over its technical architecture, offering a stable and secure foundation for online communication and interaction.
• Provide Audible a further platform for innovation.
• Enable Audible to protect its intellectual property rights.×

The .AUDIBLE registry will benefit registrants and internet users by offering a stable and secure foundation for online communication and interaction.

What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels or reputation?
Amazon intends for its new .AUDIBLE gTLD to provide a unique and dedicated platform for stable and secure online communication and interaction. The .AUDIBLE registry will be run in line with current industry standards of good registry practice.
What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space in terms of competition, differentiation or innovation?
Amazon values the opportunity to be one of the first companies to own a gTLD. A .AUDIBLE registry will:
• Provide Audible with additional controls over its technical architecture, offering a stable and secure foundation for online communication and interaction.
• Provide Audible a further platform for innovation.
• Enable Audible to protect its intellectual property rights.
What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
Amazon intends for its new .AUDIBLE gTLD to provide a unique and dedicated platform for stable and secure online communication and interaction.
Provide a complete description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the goals above
Amazon's Intellectual Property group will be responsible for the development, maintenance and enforcement of a Domain Management Policy. The Domain Management Policy will define (i) the rules associated with eligibility and domain name allocation, (ii) the license terms governing the use of a .AUDIBLE domain name, and (iii) the dispute resolution policies for the .AUDIBLE gTLD. Amazon will continually update the Domain Management Policy as needed to reflect Amazon's business goals and, where appropriate, ICANN consensus policies.
Registration of a domain name in the .AUDIBLE registry will be undertaken in four steps: (i) Eligibility Confirmation, (ii) Naming Convention Check, (iii) Acceptable Use Review, and (iv) Registration. All domains in the .AUDIBLE registry will remain the property of Amazon.
For example, on the rules of eligibility, each applied for character string must conform to the .AUDIBLE rules of eligibility. Each .AUDIBLE name must:
• be at least 3 characters and no more than 63 characters long
• not contain a hyphen on the 3rd and 4th position (tagged domains)
• contain only letters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens or a combination of these
• start and end with an alphanumeric character, not a hyphen
• not match any character strings reserved by ICANN
• not match any protected country names or geographical terms
Additionally:
• Internationalized domain names (IDN) may be supported in the .AUDIBLE registry at the second level.
• The .AUDIBLE registry will respect third party intellectual property rights.
• .AUDIBLE domains may not be delegated or assigned to third party organizations, institutions, or individuals.
• All .AUDIBLE domains will carry accurate and up-to-date registration records.
Amazon's Intellectual Property group reserves the right to revoke a license to use a .AUDIBLE domain name, at any time, if any use of a .AUDIBLE domain name violates the Domain Management Policy.
Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy of confidential information of registrants or users?
Yes. Amazon will implement appropriate privacy policies respecting requirements of local jurisdictions. For example, Amazon is a participant in the Safe Harbor program developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Union.
Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits?
There is no foreseeable reason for Amazon to undertake public outreach or mass communication about its new gTLD registry because domains will be provisioned in line with Amazon's business goals.×

Amazon intends to initially provision a relatively small number of domains in the .AUDIBLE registry to support the business goals of Amazon. These initiatives should not impose social costs of any type on consumers.
How will multiple applications for a particular domain be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first come first served basis?
Applications from Amazon and its subsidiaries for domains in the .AUDIBLE registry will be considered by Amazon's Intellectual Property group and allocated in line with Amazon's business goals. The .AUDIBLE registry will not be promoted by hundreds of registrars simultaneously, so there will not be multiple-applications for a particular domain.
Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g. advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).
Domains in the .AUDIBLE registry will be provisioned to support the business goals of Amazon. Accordingly, "cost benefits" may be explored depending on the business goals of Amazon. Amazon shares the goals of enhancing customer trust and choice.
The Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than 10 years. Additionally the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation?
The Domain Management Policy will include the costs and benefits of Amazon's unique and dedicated platform for stable and secure online communication and interaction.×

Amazon EU S.à r.l., with support of its ultimate parent company, Amazon.com, Inc. (collectively referred to in this response throughout as "Amazon"), is committed to managing the .AUDIBLE registry in full compliance with all applicable laws, consensus policies, ICANN guidelines, RFCs and the Specifications of the Registry Agreement. In the management of domain names in the .AUDIBLE registry, based on GAC advice and Specification 5, Amazon intends to block from initial registration those country and territory names contained in the following lists:

1. The short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166- 1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union; and
2. The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and
3. The list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

The process for reserving these names, and hence blocking them from registration, will be agreed to with our technical service provider Neustar.

Because the .AUDIBLE registry will be a single entity registry and for purposes which serve Amazon's strategic business aims, the reserved names cannot be offered to Governments or other official bodies for their own use as this would conflict with the mission and purpose of the gTLD. However, for the same reason, they will not be offered to third parties.

The .AUDIBLE registry only provides for the registration of names at the second level. No third level domains will be delegated at the registry level. It is consistent with GAC advice that Amazon may choose to create sub domains using country names or abbreviations at the third level. For example, Amazon may register information.audible and its internal users may create sub domains such as us.information.audible or uk.information.audible.

Amazon may also use a folder structure to represent country names in its URLs, while the block exists at the second level. For example, information.audible/germany or information.audible/uk.

We imagine that over time, there will be demand from brand gTLDs leading to the development of a standardized process for requesting GAC review and ICANN approval for the release of country and territory names for registration by the Registry Operator when the registry is a single entity registry. When such a process is in place, Amazon expects to apply for the release of country and territory names within .AUDIBLE.×