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GoDaddy Holds Domains Hostage
saikou writes "There were previous reports of GoDaddy, one of the biggest domain name registrars, attacking Bittorrent sites with frivolous interpretation of their own Terms of Service (that story was resolved), and now similar events unfold with clients of one of Russian domain registrars Majordomo.ru -- GoDaddy has informed them that all 1399 client domains are now blocked (story in Russian) due to 'many of your domain names were
listed in the Spamhaus.org blacklist or were resolving to a name server
or IP address listed in the Spamhaus.org blacklist' with a demand of a neat '$199 non-refundable
administration fee to the credit card on file for your account for each
domain name you wish to reactivate' or $50 for each domain to be transferred out into another registrar.
I am all for fighting spam, but given how unreliable spam black-lists are such actions simply damage the internet. Instead of affecting people that use spam lists to control the inflow of mail to some degree, all users are effectively forced to be black-list clients.
Now all one needs to shut down a site is a few reports of spamming, and the domain (or even better, all domains of a given small registrar) will be suspended."
The summary is quite clear. This is Russia and confusion/extortion is business as usual. It's just that American audiences are shocked - shocked! - to see international companies having lower business ethics than a typical American company like Enron.
The guy who runs GoDaddy is a rabid rightwinger. Any surprise he's gaming the system to make maximum money, though it shuts down free speech (by stealing its name)?
--
make install -not war
Then, clearly, anyone doing business with GoDaddy is a fool. They reserve the right to screw you over for no reason.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
64.233.166.178 - Server's IP
178.166.233.64 - Your checked IP
Nice try, troll. You're on my foes list.
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
is exactly what the situation now calls for. In the beginning, simple reminders on the part of the service provider and a no-tolerance policy toward rogue users would have been enough. Now, with the problem several orders of magnitude greater, we are forced to resort to draconian measures just to catch up. The further things deteriorate, the harsher the solution must become. It's like the US/Mexico immigration issue. The US sat by and watched things deteriorate, and now there's something like 18% of the Mexican population living in the 'States.
I have no sympathy for those that get caught spamming. If we'd been tougher about it sooner, it wouldn't be so bad now.