GoDaddy loses over 37,000 domains due to SOPA stance

Jos

Jos

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It's been a hell of a Christmas weekend for GoDaddy. The hosting and domain registrar company lost more than 37,000 domains in the past couple of days due to its shaky stance on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act. According to information reported by The Domains, over 15,000 domains were transferred off Thursday and another 21,054 on Friday, despite GoDaddy's attempt to control damage by withdrawing its support to SOPA.

The backlash against GoDaddy kicked off after the company appeared on an official list of companies supporting SOPA, a proposed bill that would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to block access to sites accused of infringing copyright, and stop payment processors and online advertising networks from doing business with them -- all without due process.

The idea of a domain registrar supporting DNS blocking legislation to serve the interests of overzealous copyright owners and media companies prompted Internet users to stage a widespread boycott, declaring December 29 "move your domain day." GoDaddy initially dismissed the move as having little impact on their business, but was later scrambling to let everyone know it no longer supports SOPA legislation.

In a recent statement, Warren Adelman, the company's newly appointed CEO said: "Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation – but we can clearly do better. [...] It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

Despite the reversal, the company is not taking an active stance against the bill either, which may have prompted many to carry on moving their business elsewhere. High profile customers threatening to move away from GoDaddy include Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales, and the CEO of the Cheezburger family of humor websites, Ben Huh. It's unclear if they carried on with their plans after GoDaddy's change of heart.

Go Daddy and its General Counsel, Christine Jones, have worked with federal lawmakers for months to help craft revisions to legislation first introduced some three years ago, and have said the company would support DNS blocking as a way to strike at foreign websites that infringe U.S. copyrights. As of Friday, Jones has removed posts at GoDaddy.com describing the company's support of provisions in SOPA.

Take Action

You can read more about SOPA in an article by The Verge and another one by ArsTechnica. You can also find a few ways to take action against the bill at americancensorship.org. Lastly, if you have a registered domain at GoDaddy and want to join the boycott here's a step-by-step guide on transferring your domains away.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/46791-godaddy-loses-over-37000-domains-due-to-sopa-stance.html

 
THIS is how you change the mentality of a business. You hit them where it hurts! In the pocketbook!
 
i think what most people have problem with.... and the key ingredient here is... "without due process". this makes it all the difference. McCarthy era anyone? witch hunt?
 
It's now said their stance is changed. If they revert and becoeme pro-SOPA again, I'll be transferring my domains to someone else.
 
They've already said that they only have retracted support for the current version of SOPA and they still want to work towards a more "Internet community friendly" version of SOPA. Meaning, they haven't really retracted support at all. This is just plain PR spin to make them look better, nothing more, nothing less.
 
Behold the power of the internet community when threatened.

Anger the people and you suffer the consequences, very, very immediately.

Supporting this SOPA bilge is a great way to put yourself out of business online.
 
Once my accounts expire I'll be transferring them also.. How can they change their stance after they admitted helping to write them !

Guess the pocketbook will get all the other companies to rethink also.
 
Now that they've lost huge amount of customers, does that mean they'd put up an even more dumber (like 10x dumber) commercial on Superbowl to keep up with the hype?
 
I have 1.2k domains at godaddy, .coms, nets and .co.uk. I hate to think that godaddy will start policing the internet. I do not do anything wrong with my sites but I do feel I am giving godaddy support by using the services they provide. godaddy is not a police service.

I do strongly not believe in "allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to block access to sites accused of infringing copyright"

The concept of "infringing copyright" can be minipulated by those with lots of money to stop the small man on the street to grow a legal business.


k
 
First, we had to suffer under the industrial-military establishment in place after WWII the Korea War..

Now, we have to watch out for Media companies destroying the balance in copyright law; and screw due process. Not only do content companies mostly provide crappy, repetitive, and fearful content, they now want to make our eyes into their content, their property.

Personally, I stopped watching TV, except for some PBS without ads, years ago. Try it out! You can become who you are instead of what greedy corporations want you to perpetuate -- fear and ignorance.

If they are that creative let them develop a different business model that doesn't imply interrupting your attention by blaring ads at you to buy crap its mostly bad for you.
 
They also won't be pci compliant....does anyone here know of a company similar to go daddy that is pci compliant for my online store, that is simple to deal with like go daddy. Others I called are making it very difficult to switch over.....
 
I beg to differ,
There is no accountability on the internet. People hide behind rights and anonymity. I run a Independent Game Studio, I love the internet as a platform distribution method, but it also my biggest enemy. For ever legitimate game I sold that connects to my servers, NINE pirated copies of my game connect. That is 90% of my player base did not pay for my game, not to mention those who did not connect.

I'm not a large company, only 2 other employees, it is a barely sustainable business, I could hire more employees if I were doing better. The hardest part is I know the big sites where people are pirating my games, I put in notices to shut the download down, they comply, but a day later there a new link to the download. They don't care and claim they are not responsible for what users upload and they are making money off this. And there is really no legal course for me to protect my IP because of this.

Now I come along and want these sites shut down, and I'm the greedy one? I did all the hard work for my IP, and they make money from users stealing my IP and allowing others to download it?

"Domestic production and consumption of counterfeit and pirated products costs the US
economy $215 billion annually." -GPIC(Global Intellectual Property Center)
You think the US government is going to do nothing about it.
 
I agree, hit them in the pocketbook, it is awesome to see the power of the consumer when companies try to manipulate us and how it sends a message to other companies that will see the impact on GoDaddy!
 
I completely agree with you. I do not have cable and its amazing how much propaganda I am no longer subjected to by greedy seedy capitalist who only place value on money and things not to mention their questionable morals and values. We as people need to learn to think for ourselves and question everything!
 
Go Daddy is wall street
IT’S OFFICIAL: GO DADDY PARTNERSHIP IS A “DONE DEAL”
Go Daddy, KKR, Silver Lake & TCV Join Forces to Create Bigger Tech Powerhouse
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Dec. 16, 2011) – Go Daddy now officially includes strategic financial partners, KKR | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is a wall street financial investment firm and now you now the truth.
 
For the sake of Securing their overpriced Funds [and products].
Politicians are trading away our [on-line] Freedom(s), for the sake of a campaign contribution.
Drink the Kool-aid or develop some intelligence.
 
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