GoDaddy, a site likely closed under SOPA, supports SOPA

[euantor]

Actually from what I read around the internet over a few thousand domains were transfered from godaddy to other registrars . True godaddy is huge, and they could just go to a hosting only business once they die in the domain registration portion of their website. (Or just die if SOPA does pass )

Apparently some guy on reddit is doing a transfer your domains from godaddy on Dec 29th (Funny thing is almost everyone that read that reddit post is/have moving/ed)

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/commen ... /?sort=new

I saw that too and am doing the same. All 3 of my GoDaddy domains are going to namecheap come December the 29th 😉

 

[Gimgak]

ohhhh, Hopefully they will. Although I doubt they would go into domain registration, but hopefully they switch soon.

I recall google offering domain registration in the past, most likely reselling but yeah dunno what happened to that.

I remember Geocities offering free websites in the late 90's/early 00's but yeah dunno what happened to that.

I remember Kim Jong il ruling DPRK but yeah dunno what happened to that.

 

[xarver]

Why do you assume they would get shut down over SOPA? Because they host domains that might contain copyrighted data? Well, you're wrong.

With SOPA your website doesn't instantly get shut down. It can get "temporarily suspended" until ALL copyright is removed.
So most people will have their sites removed, but I think Godaddy's reason is far more scary than you think.
Think about it. They host around 45 million domain names that just *might* include copyrighted content. What would they do with these domains? I don't know, seems likely that they would be able to scan every single site hosted under them for copyright infringement, get millions of websites shutdown, and rake in tons of profit. you've got 45 million X $10 = 450 million dollars of money that can be wrongly stolen from other people. Plus they can get hundreds of millions of dollars from ad revenue if they setup advertisements on all of their stolen domain names.
Godaddy has been known to do this kind of shady stuff in the past (look at http://www.threadwatch.org/node/12636 which was in 2007.) Now if you go to the domain mentioned which is VERY SEO-worthy you'll see something not-so-surprising. "Is this your domain?" followed by tons of advertisements they're probably making tons of money off of.
This domain-purging could also make .COMS valuable again, because if the number of them decreased to say, 1 million, that means .COMs are much more valuable. (The number of all domains was 200 million in 2010.) We all know that scarcity fuels our economy, even if something isn't actually worth much (such as a rare collectible toy being priced in the thousands.) Thus this will make them even richer in the short-term and long-term, it's a huge benefit to them.

I'm hugely against SOPA, but I just wanted to outline how it could benefit companies like GoDaddy. Part of me just wants to see SOPA pass so the world goes into revolution, though. 😛

 

[Shahrier]

Namecheap is against SOPA, as they mentioned several times in facebook ads and posts. They also have a coupon code "SOPAsucks" for web hosting.

 

[xarver]

Godaddy stopped supporting it as of 3 hours ago. 😀
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... r-sopa.ars

 

[Shahrier]

Godaddy stopped supporting it as of 3 hours ago. 😀
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... r-sopa.ars

Lol, they still support it in their heads, just not anymore publicly because the sales probably dropped like crazy. I'm still not going to use them in the future.

 

[xarver]

Godaddy stopped supporting it as of 3 hours ago. 😀
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... r-sopa.ars

Lol, they still support it in their heads, just not anymore publicly because the sales probably dropped like crazy. I'm still not going to use them in the future.

That's not possible. A company can't say they don't support SOPA but secretly do, there's a list of companies who do. Legally they have to be listed in the Bill's supporter list... and there not going to be there in future iterations it seems.

 

[Shahrier]

But still, they only stopped supporting SOPA because their sales dropped.

Namecheap.com
Unlike the competition, we oppose SOPA because we believe in internet freedom. Transfer your domains over for $6.99 with code SOPASucks. Offer valid for COM NET ORG INFO and BIZ TLDs.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

Why do you assume they would get shut down over SOPA? Because they host domains that might contain copyrighted data? Well, you're wrong.

It encourages ripping off trademarks. Try to buy the domain "rolex.com" it will tell you rolex.com is taken and a bunch of other rolex-type domains will pop up. Rolex can claim that GD is encouraging people to rip off their trademark and push to shut down GD.

 

[Austin01]

There is no doubt GoDaddy stopped supporting SOPA due to their sales drop rate, including transfers out of their service. It's just to cover their mistake and I'm sure inside the company they still back it. 

No one changes their mind in 24 hours to not support it after publicly saying you do. 

 

[IAAM Radio]

GoDaddy is huge but supporting such a bill seemed odd. I was surprised they did so. Not surprised at the retraction.

 

[Wrecks]

Just another nail in the coffin for SOPA hopefully.

 

[IAAM Radio]

I tend to agree

 

[Watch Me Sink]

There is no doubt GoDaddy stopped supporting SOPA due to their sales drop rate, including transfers out of their service. It's just to cover their mistake and I'm sure inside the company they still back it. 

No one changes their mind in 24 hours to not support it after publicly saying you do. 

They probably got the message after Wikipedia/Wikimedia moved their domains.

 

[Victor Leigh]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/anti-sopa-activists-launch-godaddy-boycott/

Seems like Godaddy will lose and gain some customers for what they have done. But not sure how many people other there really support SOPA.

No hard data but I would say that the gain and loss of customers would be like 1000 to 0.

 

[Watch Me Sink]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/anti-sopa-activists-launch-godaddy-boycott/

Seems like Godaddy will lose and gain some customers for what they have done. But not sure how many people other there really support SOPA.

No hard data but I would say that the gain and loss of customers would be like 1000 to 0.

They lost over 37,000 domains in the past 2 days.

EDIT: But don't think GD is "safe" because they said they don't support SOPA. They still do, they just don't want everybody to move their domains. A PR move to save customers.

 

[xarver]

Well I just heard on reddit a day ago that they didn't pull Congressional support which is disappointing. 🙁

 

[froggyboy604]

I read on a forum there were more then 70,000 domains who transfer their domain away from GoDaddy to protest against SOPA and GD.

http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-Go-Dadd ... pa-protest

 

[Watch Me Sink]

Well I just heard on reddit a day ago that they didn't pull Congressional support which is disappointing. 🙁

Exactly. Their just doing a publicity stunt to save customers.

 

[Fait]

I Did get this email sent to me

Happy Holidays -- we have some great news to share.

We've just won two huge battles in the fight against Internet censorship -- everything you are doing is working! First off, the House of Representatives failed to move SOPA out of committee! Why? Because their offices got swamped with phone calls and overwhelmed by the snowballing opposition. Thank you for helping make that happen.

Second, in response to the boycott of GoDaddy, the web hosting company just made a public announcement that it's dropping its support of SOPA. Amazing what you have made happen.

Yet, we can't let GoDaddy off the hook just yet. GoDaddy supports the Senate version of SOPA, called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). The boycott has to continue -- Please click here to pledge to join it:

www.godaddyboycott.com
Please join us in holding GoDaddy accountable, until they drop any and all efforts to support not just SOPA, but also its Senate cousin, PIPA. The boycott already worked to get GoDaddy to change their position on SOPA, now we urgently need to hear from GoDaddy about PIPA too.

So what's next?

The PIPA bill is still alive and strong in the Senate, and could be voted on in January. Like SOPA, it threatens free speech, innovation, and the basic structure of the Internet.

Keep transferring your domains from GoDaddy until they fully come out against PIPA and SOPA. They need to send a letter to Congress making their opposition to both bills clear -- Click here to join the cause.

www.godaddyboycott.com
Thank you for all that you do -- it is working!

Tiffiniy & Phil

Fight for the Future
----

This email was sent to [email protected].

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