Internet Revolts Against Go Daddy's SOPA Support

[vansau]

Internet Revolts Against Go Daddy's SOPA Support

Really, Go Daddy? You didn't see this coming? Really?

There are a lot of reasons that people hate domain name registrar Go Daddy. The company's <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Daddy#Controversies>no stranger to controversy, its services are <a href=http://www.the-best-web-hosting-service.com/godaddy-review.php>pretty underwhelming, and let's not forget all those terrible <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmdaB21E2tY&feature=related>wannabe softcore porn Superbowl ads they like to run (just a head's up, that link's borderline NSFW). Now, though, Go Daddy has stepped out from under the label of "controversial" and found a new position beneath "borderline suicidal" by announcing its support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Unsurprisingly, the collective users of the internet are lining up to hit the company where it'll do the most harm: Its wallet.

A little background on this issue: Back in November, Go Daddy filed a statement supporting the bill, claiming that "this debate is not about Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley. This debate is about preserving, protecting, and creating American jobs and protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line."

Go Daddy's statement condemned the ease with which people are able to engage in illegal activities like selling fake drugs and sharing copyrighted material across the Web. However, the statement also completely dismisses any criticism of both SOPA and the Protect IP Act. Opponents of these bills have noted that the proposed legislation would come at a "terrible price" and hand way too much power to certain groups, which could easily lead to massive amounts of online censorship. According to Go Daddy, this isn't the case:

"This bill cannot reasonably be equated with censorship. This bill promotes action pursuant to preexisting criminal and civil laws. Not only is there no First Amendment concern, but the notion that we should turn a blind eye to criminal conduct because other countries may take oppressive steps in response is an affront to the very fabric of this nation."

Go Daddy doesn't seem willing to address concerns that the bill will, you know, <a href=http://www.extremetech.com/computing/109533-how-sopa-could-actually-break-the-internet>break the internet.

Unsurprisingly, SOPA opponents aren't the least bit happy with Go Daddy's position. Over at Reddit, user "selfprodigy" started a thread that slams Go Daddy for supporting the bill. Selfprodigy, who is a small business owner, has vowed to transfer all 51 of his company's domains to another registrar; the move is proving popular with other users in the (now lengthy) thread, who are now promising to do the same thing and proposing making December 29th "Move Your Domain Away From Go Daddy Day".

Since the initial thread started up, calls to boycott Go Daddy have started springing up across Reddit. Competing domain name registrars have jumped on the anti-Go Daddy movement, to the surprise of absolutely no one. Namecheap, whose social media manager is actively involved in the discussion, has already offered discount codes (like "BYEBYEGD") for folks who want to move their domains away from the company. There are reportedly even discussions about the boycott within Go Daddy's own forums.

Now, Go Daddy is a massive company, with tens of millions of domains registered. On top of that, while the tech community and hardcore Web users are universally opposed to SOPA, the general populace (including my mother) doesn't really understand how bad this legislation is. As a result, Move Your Domain Away From Go Daddy Day may not have all that big an impact on the company's bottom line. That said, I certainly know a lot of people who won't be using the service any longer.

Source: Reddit via <a href=http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/godaddys_sopa_support_sparks_calls_for_boycotts_an.php>Read Write Web

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[coldfrog]

This says to me that the people who own Go Daddy are either A: run and controlled by those same hollywood windbags who don't know anything, or B: run by people who know next to nothing about the business they're running. I've never really had any respect for the company, and I hope that the system admins and other IT guys in charge of their company's sites see this and cut and run from these twerps.

 

[Kross]

The problem is Registrars are already the used car salesmen of the Internet. They get allocations handed down from Verisign on high, and some like Godaddy deal in such bulk that they can lower their margin on reselling.

I've used or worked with many people who have used Godaddy over the years. They're cheap and do enough business where you can rely on stability. Outside of that, they have a habit of locking domains with little notice, and a history of unasked for policing on their DNS allocations. Yet people who hate them still use them. As long as they can host the little config file line that points a domain at your IP for cheaper then everyone else, people will use them. In the end they're just some service provider spouting off unpopular opinions, with very little to offer other then the cheap reselling of Verisign's service.

As far as SOPA, it definitely needs noise made about it, but I'm hardly concerned with the end effect.

Really? Aggressive DNS or other filtering? Does anyone who has a remote understanding of how networks and DNS works think this will fly for more then a few hours/days before people are routing around it? The Internet was practically founded on such adaptive routing concepts. Are they really going to make the great firewall of the United States? INCONCIEVABLE [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk]!

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Have I mentioned lately how much I love that this site has the balls to openly take a side on this, even though it's a political issue and people always say "don't talk about politics on the Internet"? Meanwhile you don't even hear about this bill in the mainstream media. At all.

 

[samsonguy920]

I have to wonder if the execs at GoDaddy even know what is in their backyard when they decide to just blatantly support a bill like this. If even one of GoDaddy's domains is found to violate SOPA, it won't matter that GoDaddy.com is all for SOPA. The MPAA, RIAA, EA, or whatever will demand all of GoDaddy's domains be shut down "just on the safe side."
Music, movie, and game studios who want SOPA to pass want it for one reason: to drive traffic only to their sites. They want Joe Public to come to EA.com, UniversalMusic.com, FoxNetwork, name your poison ONLY. They don't want people hearing about their products third hand and think maybe there is a cheaper way to get it. If people have only one place to go, then the demand will justify the raise in price.

The problem is Registrars are already the used car salesmen of the Internet. They get allocations handed down from Verisign on high, and some like Godaddy deal in such bulk that they can lower their margin on reselling.

I've used or worked with many people who have used Godaddy over the years. They're cheap and do enough business where you can rely on stability. Outside of that, they have a habit of locking domains with little notice, and a history of unasked for policing on their DNS allocations. Yet people who hate them still use them. As long as they can host the little config file line that points a domain at your IP for cheaper then everyone else, people will use them. In the end they're just some service provider spouting off unpopular opinions, with very little to offer other then the cheap reselling of Verisign's service.

As far as SOPA, it definitely needs noise made about it, but I'm hardly concerned with the end effect.

Really? Aggressive DNS or other filtering? Does anyone who has a remote understanding of how networks and DNS works think this will fly for more then a few hours/days before people are routing around it? The Internet was practically founded on such adaptive routing concepts. Are they really going to make the great firewall of the United States? INCONCIEVABLE [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk]!

This is what makes SOPA the same stupid argument as DRM. The only people this law will hurt will be the people who don't know any better; those who buy their music, movies, and games from the proper sources. The ones who pirate and hack already have probably a dozen different routes set in motion that if by some miracle one of their sites gets DNS-Blocked, they just have to make one click and they are back in business.
It does raise an interesting thought on how long before ISP's sit on this before they realize the hurt that it could do to them. Verizon and AT&T will take the first hurt when people remove their online service from their smartphones because Facebook and Twitter are no longer accessible and their phone games are cut off because Rovio cried foul of some Angry Birds rip-off. Comcast will probably feel it next when suddenly they aren't having to charge people for extra bandwidth. What's the point of staying online longer or making big downloads when there is nothing to download?
All this makes this quote the most stupid of them all:

This debate is about preserving, protecting, and creating American jobs and protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line.

American communications jobs and services are already at jeopardy because every month more of them are being outsourced to India, China, Pakistan, what-have-you. And it isn't because of piracy or hacking. It is because corporations like Viacom and News Corp trim everything they can to bring their bottom line down even further to line their pockets even more. Does it hurt the economy? Yes. But not enough to raise public awareness or motivation to the point to act on them. Which makes me all the more ill.
If SOPA passes, good people working at Google, Amazon, Yahoo, NewEgg, and others will lose their jobs when their websites get blocked. Without sales, bandwidth, or traffic, these places will have to lay off many good working people who have absolutely nothing to do with piracy or any sort of copyright infringement. And it won't even stop at places that run auctions or private sales, as SOPA will go after any places that are found suspect of communications on pirating goods. And it doesn't even stop there as many good businesses depend on Amazon, Google, and Yahoo to do their shipping business. Yes, the world was able to get by without this in the past. But the world is so much bigger now and become so much more dependent on technology that it will destroy the economies of many countries, not just the US.
Anybody who works for GoDaddy.com: You may want to make sure you have a savings account built up and your resumes ready. If SOPA passes you can probably kiss your job goodbye by the end of 2012. And God help you in finding a new one.

 

[samsonguy920]

Have I mentioned lately how much I love that this site has the balls to openly take a side on this, even though it's a political issue and people always say "don't talk about politics on the Internet"? Meanwhile you don't even hear about this bill in the mainstream media. At all.

Indeed. I've visited two news sites repeatedly and the only word from congress was about the payroll tax cut debate, which doesn't even affect me. (Apparently it only affects those making over $50,000 a year, which I imagine will affect a few Escapists.)
If anything about SOPA were to be featured on MSNBC it would have to be bare bones gray words not even worth reading since MSNBC isn't about to piss off their sister company Universal or start to sound like Fox.

 

[FalloutJack]

Hmmm... That's funny. There's a theme I can't get out of my head [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO5-hM6xKt4] all of a sudden.

I'm sure it'll make sense later. ANYWAY, I have to laugh. GoDaddy talking is like listening to Dan Quale or - heaven forbid - Sarah Palin. How can anyone take 'em seriously? On the one side, everyone on the internet is afraid of what this blasted bill will DO to the net, and on the other...we're all certain that hackers are gonna blow the security to pieces!

Someone, please wake me when the shooting starts. I'll bring popcorn.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I watched the linked ad and now I want to join GoDaddy. I don't care what they do or how much they charge. I just want to join them.

Now where was I? Oh yes... SOPA. Bad, bad, bad bill. Uh-huh. Not good. Let's put a stop to it.

*Goes back to dreaming about Danica Patrick.*

 

[RatRace123]

Eh, I always hated GoDaddy anyway, they promise Danica Patrick in a state of undress and they never deliver.

I can't support a company that so willingly deceives people.

Oh yeah and the SOPA thing is terrible too.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

As far as SOPA, it definitely needs noise made about it, but I'm hardly concerned with the end effect.

Really? Aggressive DNS or other filtering? Does anyone who has a remote understanding of how networks and DNS works think this will fly for more then a few hours/days before people are routing around it?

Should it pass most of the people with an interest in circumventing it will have their shit ready to go before it goes active.

SOPA is typical of trying to force political 'solutions' on technological 'problems'... rather than try and understand unfamiliar technology they just act as if it was old tech and make their laws accordingly... which then fail spectacularly because they listened to all the arseholes with a vested interest in such shoddy laws (including their own egos) instead of people who know what the hell they're talking about.

The Internet was practically founded on such adaptive routing concepts.

It was the only way to build in the level of redundancy they required into the information infrastructure.

Are they really going to make the great firewall of the United States?

Pffft. They wouldn't even know what colour to paint it.

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

I'm tempted to register a domain with GoDaddy just so I can take it down in a week.

 

[Hatchet90]

Best of luck to everyone who plans on transferring domains. I had a domain with GoDaddy once and it took me forever to cancel all the services on my account. The site is so poorly organized that it's almost like they want to discourage people from canceling. There are so many webpages and so much red tape you need to cross to cancel "auto-renewable" services.

 

[Volothos]

Can I say one thing? Destructoid has a revision 3 show that GoDaddy has sponsored many times. GoDaddy, why are you supporting a bill that will shut down a show that you have sponsored many times?

 

[Elyxard]

Urgh, I own two websites hosted there. If they don't change their stance I'm definitely not renewing with them.

Absolutely vile, vile bill, only the biggest corporate sleazebags could ever think that it's a good idea. What the hell are they thinking, even taking a stance on this at all?

 

[CrystalShadow]

Ugh. SOPA. I'm not even in the US, but the very idea of it seems so toxic that if it passes other idiotic politicians are probably going to think they can copy that too.

Just like the DMCA. That, or the US will put pressure on them to do so even against their own best interests.

I'd laugh it off, but a lot of critical web services are US-owned. Sure, if they're crippled by this, replacements will probably show up...

But it'll still be quite disruptive in the meantime.

And then of course, there's this:

"this debate is not about Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley. This debate is about preserving, protecting, and creating American jobs and protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line."

Assuming, other nations are clever enough to avoid copying this retarded idea, what is the net effect of this actually going to be on 'american jobs'?

You think google, Visa, paypal, facebook and all the other US companies make all, or even most of their income from the US alone?

What happens when these business are crippled by SOPA, and foreign-owned companies not subject to it's jurisdiction rush to fill the void left by their services being unavailable?

Fact is, the only effect this can have is to either cripple the entire US internet (and maybe even financial) sectors, to the direct benefit of competitors from other countries,

Or... It will destroy pretty much the entire internet, if other nations are insane enough to follow suit.

So... So much for "Protecting American Jobs".

Morons. >_<

 

[Snotnarok]

Aaaauuughh...*face in hands* my sites are under godaddy, I really really do not want to sit there and move them and have them reestablished somewhere else. This makes me both irritated at myself and pissed at them.

 

[Aprilgold]

Meanwhile you don't even hear about this bill in the mainstream media. At all.

Ever... Evvvaaaeeeerrrr.... Thats a problem right there, while some random news site is going on about how this puppy dog is FUCKING ADORABLE this bill is being passed with the American people without a computer not knowing... Its probably best that this bill is only widely known through the interenet, its stopping more SOPA supporters, since the general public is either stupid or gullible, and will buy anything. Remember when there was the whole "WHERES THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE" fiasco with X-President Barack Obama where they were saying he was a sleeper agent because his middle name is Husein [not quite sure if spelled right]

It got started over either Fox or a tabloid, and it brought up a ruckus. Over something so stupid. I'm not above stupidity myself but come on people, really?

Welp, never liked Godaddy since I always thought it was a porn site, and they never really fully explained what their site was about.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

This debate is about preserving, protecting, and creating American jobs and protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line."

They didn't follow up with "Won't someone think of the American children?"?

 

[the spud]

You know, until now, since the only things I knew about GoDaddy I learned from the Super bowl commercials, I assumed that GoDaddy.com was a porno site. Seriously.