GoDaddy Follows Google's Lead; No More Registrations In China

phantomfive writes "GoDaddy has announced it will no longer register domain names in China, in response to new requirements that each registrant be photographed, and their business ID number be submitted. GoDaddy's representative said, 'The intent of the procedures appeared, to us, to be based on a desire by the Chinese authorities to exercise increased control over the subject matter of domain name registrations by Chinese nationals.'"

Comments

Re:Hey, Me Too!

[oldspewey]

I once worked with a client with subcontractors in China, who would at various times send him mockups and technical drawings for various products. On one particular project, time was getting tight and the subcontractor became strangely non-communicative at a crucial juncture. My client's blood pressure started rising as he kept trying (within the confines of a 10-12 hour timezone difference and a fairly significant language barrier on the telephone) to figure things out and get all the information we needed.

The subcon kept insisting "I sent the files. I sent the files" but he never received them. As a workaround I set up an FTP space where files could be exchanged and we got through our deadlines that way. After the fact, an idea occurred to me and I told my client "hey, why don't you just phone up your ISP and ask them why you're not getting email from China?"

Sure enough, it turned out his ISP had one day decided to just unilaterally stop accepting email from Chinese IP addresses. They did this as a spam and malware control measure, but didn't see fit to inform their customers of the change since they assumed it wouldn't impact anyone in any real way.

Fun times.