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GoDaddy Backs SOPA
redletterdave writes "Website hosting company GoDaddy has officially voiced its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Bill in 2012, which is designed to thwart movie and music piracy on the Internet by empowering copyright holders to effectively shut down websites or online services found with infringing material. If passed, the U.S. government could blacklist any website it deems in violation of copyright, which could range from a few posts in a Web forum to a few links sent in an e-mail. GoDaddy supports SOPA for 'protecting the intellectual property of hard-working Americans, U.S. business and the American public from the harm that necessarily flows from the purchase of counterfeit products.' Yet, of the 142 companies that support the SOPA bill, GoDaddy is the only Internet company on the list."
Anyone in the industry has known to avoid GoDaddy for domains. Their sole existence is based on commercials and advertisements, not good service. It's a perfect example that advertisements works too. This news isn't exactly surprising and will do nothing to GoDaddy's market share.
to move my domain off of GoDaddy. My laziness only gets them so much revenue.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
i have all my domains hosted with them, if this bill gets passed i'm moving them.
i live in Australia but this bill is rediculous.
It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
Regulatory requirements are hardest on smaller entities to implement. This is exactly the kind of barrier that would make it unprofitable for a small DNS provider to implement. Just as HIPAA favors large HMOs over smaller ones, and SOx helps mega-corporations.
Reddit users are planning to move domain names from GoDaddy to other registrars over this. /. readers also thought of a similar protest, but the 3 guys who still used GoDaddy were nowhere to be found.
I suspect GoDaddy stands to make a lot of money blacklisting, blocking, banning, and otherwise screwing up the DNS, for a price...and that is why they signed.
1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
Could the USA shut slashdot down if an AC's posted some torrent links for content that infringed on copyright?
What metric does the US government use to determine if some content is infringing that makes it worth shutting down access to the entire website?
Will the USA also be shutting down irc, which is also used by many people to send copyrighted content to others illegally?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I have hung onto GoDaddy because of how cheap they are, and that I've so far never had a problem. But this just goes too far for a mediocre service. The service works, and is cheap, but I'd rather pay more for a better service, even if I don't need it, than support them anymore. As soon as the holidays are over, I am moving over EVERYTHING from them. I also will no longer advise any of my clients from using them (though they were never really "recommended" except for how cheap things can be with them thanks to promos).
The man who cannot imagine a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot - Andre Breton
Cheezburger network CEO Ben Huh may pull over 1000 domains from GoDaddy in protest of GoDaddy's support for SOPA. Gizmodo has a list of companies supporting SOPA. Jeff Epstein has instructions for bulk transfers away from GoDaddy.
Adam Savage has also warned that SOPA could destroy the internet as we know it. Reddit concurs that SOPA could destroy them.
Two congressional staffers, Allison Halataei and Lauren Pastarnack, who helped write SOPA/PIPA become entertainment industry lobbyists
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
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And their prices after coupons are low enough that I don't care about their ads. Does anybody else have better prices for .com or anything else for that matter? Not that I've found.
Jeff Epstein has put up a step-by-step guide detailing the easiest way to leave GoDaddy:
http://blog.jeffepstein.me/post/14629857835/a-step-by-step-guide-to-transfer-domains-out-of-godaddy
Take special note of that trick to confirm the transfers at the end, because it can save you a five day wait. There are also ways to export your zones if you made the mistake of using GoDaddy as your DNS provider. Several other registrars are running deals right now, too. I've heard people saying that NameCheap (which is anti-SOPA) will let you keep the time you had paid for, so if you registered a domain for 10 years, you won't just lose it all. They even have a coupon of SOPASUCKS
While NameCheap appears to be the most active anti-SOPA registrar, other honorable mentions include MediaTemple (the CEO has tweeted that he is opposed to SOPA) and DNSimple (which offers a discount for those escaping GoDaddy),
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Nothing exceptional, but they do the job well. Price isn't bad, nice little web interface to change everything. I'm sure it isn't the be all end all, but I've been pleased with it.
From an episode of the apprentice, Trump said "It only takes one stupid decision to ruin a company".
"GoneDaddy" has a nice ring to it xD
How SOPA's 'circumvention' ban could put a target on Tor
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
GoDaddy is unbelievably evil, and most people already know that. Did this surprise anyone?
Use "NODADDY" a Name.com for 10% off transfer ins (COM, NET, ORG, TV, INFO, IN, US, CO, ME & TEL) and also receive 40% off any hosting plans.
HostGator is doing 50% off Shared / Reseller / VPS first month. Coupon code: NOSOPA
Name Cheap has a "special discount deal": BYEBYEGD
DreamHost use NOTOSOPA you get your first registration free.
I can't claim credit for this, all came from Reddit
NASCAR, need I say more? NASCAR depends on ESPN and the networks who are part of the media conglomerates who are pushing SOPA through in the first place. GoDaddy's primary advertising partner is a NASCAR driver.
Personally, I don't know how advertising through Danika Patrick ever worked out for them. It's not like they have advertisements on their website, so it's not like tricking rednecks into thinking there's Danika Patrick porn on there really brings in any revenue. I've had to explain to several people what GoDaddy actually is, because even after they visit the site in the vain hope of seeing Danika take it all off, they still don't understand what it's for.
As far as purchasing domains and web hosting. . .I don't know anyone who uses them. Obviously some people do, but I've always assumed they have some advertising scheme worked out. The way they exploit Danika just seems to imply there's no sense of business ethics, or even the desire to appear to have some, at the company. Of course, supporting SOPA proves this theory of mine.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
For anyone managing a large amount of domains, an SRS Plus partner account from Network Solutions would be the way to go. There are two benefits:
1) The prices are cheaper.
2) They are not GoDaddy
With a partner account you have access to change contact information, DNS servers, request auth codes, etc...
Oh, and like xombo said about internet.bs below, SRS Plus also has an API.
because it affects companies in a sort of inverted U shape: small businesses owned by fewer than 500 shareholders are completely exempt
Perhaps by the letter of the law they are exempt but they still feel the pain. My small employer (60+ employees) is privately owned but our accounting costs almost doubled after SOx. I'm willing to bet the bottom line hit from this represents a higher percentage of our income than it does for random mega-corp.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Gandi.net are a sizable international registrar i first heard of back during the last 'elephant sized' Godaddy debacle.
They support a load of projects like Debian and the EFF, along with charities like the International Federation of Human Rights and the WWF.
They cost a tiny bit more than Godaddy but it's a pittance given the manner with which they conduct themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandi
https://www.gandi.net/supports/
This UID is 7651 digits too high to subjectively infer IQ from.
My favorite .bs domain (Yes, it is SFW.)
The fact that Bob Parsons blogged in support of waterboarding and other forms of torture, and then when called on it edited his blog post and lied and said he'd never said what he'd said... that AND the sexism was enough to convince me he was an immoral piece of shit.
Been using namecheap since.
This space available.
Was too lazy to transfer domains, but now I moved my 3 domains away from GoDaddy, to Gandi.net.
Now I don't understand how I managed to ever use that horrible GoDaddy interface, aargh.
Gandi is a great company. I don't use them for my domains because I don't like getting it all from one company but their VPS offer is really good.
I used to run on Knownhost but switched to Gandi because their servers are more reliable, faster and customer service is better.
Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
You can still switch even when your domain is not up for renewal. Purchasing time at another DNS registrar will just add the new time to whatever you already have on the books.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Here are more reasons. These are stories about GoDaddy on Slashdot, in order by date, to 2010-09-11:
Go Daddy Usurps Network Solutions (2005-05-04)
GoDaddy Serves Blank Pages to Safari & Opera (2005-12-08)
GoDaddy.com Dumps Linux for Microsoft (2006-03-23)
GoDaddy Holds Domains Hostage (2006-06-17)
GoDaddy Caves To Irish Legal Threat (2006-09-16)
MySpace and GoDaddy Shut Down Security Site (2007-01-26) That incident prompted this web site:
Exposing the Many Reasons Not to Trust GoDaddy with Your Domain Names.
Alternative Registrars to GoDaddy? (2007-02-03)
GoDaddy Bobbles DST Changeover? (2007-03-11)
850K RegisterFly Domains Moved To GoDaddy (2007-05-29)
According to this March 11, 2008 story in Wired, GoDaddy shut down an entire web site of 250,000 pages because of one archived mailing list comment: GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com. See below for Slashdot's story about RateMyCop.com.
GoDaddy Silences RateMyCop.com (2008-03-12)
ICANN Moves Against GoDaddy Domain Lockdowns (2008-04-08)
GoDaddy VP Caught Bidding Against Customers (2008-06-29)
KnujOn Updates Top 10 Spam-Friendly Registrars List (2009-02-06, 80 comments) GoDaddy is on the list.
R.I.P. FTP (2009-07-13, 359 comments) The GoDaddy web site is extremely complicated. Quote: "In that case, why don't more people switch to administering their sites via SFTP instead of FTP? Here are the steps it took me to enable SFTP on my GoDaddy hosting account. Feel free to use this as a reference, but the obvious point is that as long as this many steps are required, it's safe to say that most users won't be switching: 1) Go to the 'Hosting' menu and pick 'My Hosting Account.' 2) Next to the name of your website, pick 'Manage Account.' This will open the Hosting Control Center. 3) In Hosting Control Center, click to expand the 'Settings' options. 4) In the 'Settings' control panel, click the 'SSH' icon. 5) You will see a page saying 'SSH is not set up', and prompting you to enter a phone number so that their automated service can call you with a PIN number. After you enter your phone number, the phone rings a second later, and you enter the PIN in a form on the GoDaddy website. 6 ) You will then see a page which says: Current Hosting Account Status: Pending Account Change -- Your request to enable SSH is being processed. This upgrade may take up to 24 hours." [Punctuation and emphasis changed for clarity.]
Registrars Still Ignoring ICANN Rules (2009-07-22, 122 comments) Quote: "GoDaddy (and their reseller arm, Wild West Domains) have a different problem: They still block transfers for 60 days after a registrant's contact update, even after the ICANN update specifically prohibited doing so. They freely admit it, too."
I had serious problems with Namecheap. They seemed to want to refuse to renew my domains. I transferred everything to domainsite.com. Not wonderful, but no problems with renewal.
What other domain name registrars are good?
20 Stories about GoDaddy on Slashdot
Indeed, they're lucky to be paid to do what they love AT ALL. Most americans are stuck doing some job they HATE, and these "artists" complain because they're not able to buy another gold statue of themselves.
Here's a hint to all those "artists": most musicians are broke as fuck but keep playing anyway, because they're not in it for the money, they're in it for the music. As a musician myself, I would be honored if people downloaded my music for free. I'm sharing something that I created with the world, and the fact that another person can get joy out of my music just like I can makes it all worthwhile. I think that any street musician would agree.
-Glitch "We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." - Linus Torvalds
1. They were founded by spammer Bob Parsons. (Yes, spammer. Check the archives of Usenet's news.admin.net-abuse.email.)
2. They have a very long and ongoing history of supporting more spammer, phishers, scammer, forger, etc. domains than anyone else. (See same source, plus archives of the spam-l mailing list.) The reason? They run an "abuse desk" that passes on complaints to the spammers, who can then of course target complainers for retaliation. (Yes, they do occasionally make a show of removing spammer domains -- but only when sufficient public exposure has turned up the heat enough. And even in those cases, they (a) help the spammers move the domains to another registrar and (b) sell the same spammers more domains.)
3. They confiscated the SecLists.org domain out of sheer spite and stupidity. (See the Wayback Machine's archives of the NoDaddy web site. Read the rest of it while you're at it.)
4. They run offensively sexist, sleazy TV commercials. (Yes, I like boobies too -- who doesn't? -- but these ads are insulting and degrading to women.)
5. They frequently bungle/obstruct domain changes and transfers and make it effectively impossible for domain owners to fix the situation.
6. Spammer Bob Parsons likes to kiil endangered, sentient animals for fun. Think about that for a minute: just for the thrill of the kill, this complete asshole is willing to extinguish the life of a beautiful, compassionate, free animal. That's one of the most selfish, low, vicious things that someone can do -- whether that animal happens to be an elephant or a fellow human being. And it tells you everything that you need to know about him: he'll do anything for self-interest/profit...including selling out the entire Internet.
7. The bottom line is this: there is no point in threatening GoDaddy. If they take it sufficiently seriously, they'll just lie about it and then quietly go back on their word once the furor dies down. So don't threaten. Just act. Get your stuff out of there, tell everyone else you know to get their stuff out of there, and let's be down with it. Spammer Bob Parsons has already made far too much money and done far too much damage in the process; it's time to blacklist him and his company forever. They don't deserve the privilege of your business, and they certainly don't deserve to be part of the Internet community.
Why do GoDaddy support this? Interestingly they have somehow pre-negotiated a legal exemption from SOPA, should it come to pass, perhaps in return for their support.
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/sopa-hearing-will-never-end.php (search for GoDaddy, their name will be written into the proposed law)
Notice that GoDaddy has this magical get-out-of-jail-free card while e.g. libraries, universities, schools, hospitals and many branches of government do not. They've stolen a life jacket and are now set on scuttling the ship. There are historical parallels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling
I'm moving my domains away, of course, and I should have done so sooner by the sounds of things. To support SOPA is not merely evil, it's also an indication that the guy doesn't understand the technological consequences, and I don't hire such people to run my internets.
You forgot to mention their awesome API http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Application_programming_interface
So this means you don't do business with GoDaddy. Don't support companies that want to infringe on you.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Just transferred my domains to Namecheap. Thanks for the recommendations.
It's taking a decent while for the transfer to happen. I wonder if they are being "slammed" with transfers?
http://lifehacker.com/5870649/ditch-godaddys-sopa+loving-butt-and-get-a-better-web-host-at-a-discount
Lifehacker explains how to save money, and stop supporting SOPA, by ditching GoDaddy. Lifehacker also lists other reasons to ditch godaddy, such as poor customer support, and elephant killing CEO. Surprisingly, Lifehacker forget to mention godaddy's sexist advertisements.