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Wikipedia To Dump GoDaddy Over SOPA
Reader jampola points out that Wikimedia's Jimmy Wales last week said clearly what was only hinted at earlier in the month; now "It's not only imgur (among many others) who are giving GoDaddy the flick; it also appears Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikimedia, will be making the change. While unsure to what effect Wikimedia utilizes the services of GoDaddy, I imagine this could very well be another public blow for GoDaddy in the wrong direction over their decision to support SOPA."
I can't but happy with their service. Clean, fast user interface with no horrible upselling like with GoDaddy. They are against SOPA and have worked great for years. I can only recommend them.
Citation meaning how many other big accounts does GoDaddy administrate? Wikipedia and imgur leaving GoDaddy isn't going to make them fold like Bear Sterns, or will it?
In response, GoDaddy will now have various pictures of Danica Patrick at the top of all of their site's pages, urgently pleading people to register domains with them.
The caption would be:
If everyone reading this registered 5 domains with us, we could end the internet today. Please read a personal appeal. Please help.
If what I just said sounded like a troll, it was probably just a failed attempt at humor.
You have no (timely and effective) private right of action beyond petty squabbling with people not directly involved with your issue that are for or against it.
hover.com/tucows is another that has come out against SOPA. UI is decent. $10 to transfer a domain. No upselling.
Reply to That ||
A lot of people/companies movies their domains away, not just wikipedia or imgur, or the humble bundle people. A lot of people have done it. I wrapped up moving my domains today (started after the previous domain dispute wit godaddy that was reported on /.).
It would be more interesting to see what companies, specially those that rely on user contribution, decided not to move away from the shitty registrar called GoDaddy.
For who care, I moved my domains to Gandi. So far the service is great, the gratis DNS management is also ok (you can pretty much copy paste zone files). Gandi is a non-US company (French), they support EFF (and a bunch of other projects /.ers like), oppose SOPA: http://www.gandibar.net/post/2011/12/23/Gandi-s-Opposition-to-the-SOPA-Legislation
A few hours after I finished transferring all of my domains away from GoDaddy, they spammed me with an advertisement offering 25% off my next purchase of $75 or more. Not, "Hey, we'd like you back. What can we do to change your mind?" No, it was "Hey, you were a customer once and we'd like to milk you some more. Here's a not-very-good incentive to buy more services from us."
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
GoDaddy didn't reversed their stance on SOPA. They simply stopped actively supporting it in public. There is a big difference.
They don't mention GoDaddy, but it seems they are also moving away from it:
http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/12/29/possible-unreachable-time-tonight/
In their case they are moving altogether from the US. Are they paranoid, or is this the right move? With the US control of the ICANN, I wonder how much better would it be to use a non-US name registrar
p.s.: How can I change the text displayed when I use URL tag?, couldn't find that anywhere in the FAQ.
GoDaddy did NOT reverse their stance on SOPA. They only removed the publication on their supporting stance of SOPA. So they still support it, they just don't say it out loud.
What makes you think they reversed their stance?
So, even though GoDaddy reversed their stance on SOPA after all the grief customers and the internet community at large gave them, clients are still leaving? I am amazed people and businesses are following suit in leaving GoDaddy even after the change in opinion. Not that I mind that at all given that the next SOPA-Similar-Clone comes out GoDaddy will more-than-likely back that as well..
I don't know how many times this has to be said; but...
GoDaddy has not changed their position on SOPA. They have said that they might review it (attempting to appease without actually backing up their words).
I don't know where the link is but they even said they still need to support it in congress so they're only publicly not supporting it.
Its wacked that GoDaddy supports SOPA anyway. Apart from the owner's ultra-right wing beliefs, you would think that the guy who runs GoDaddy would clue up for half a second and think "gee, shutting down web sites would be bad for business, since some of those sites may be hosted by GoDaddy, and with them gone I get less revenue". Nope! Buddy supports SOPA. Hundreds of internet users have made very good cases why SOPA is really bad. Civil liberties people have said its a violation of civil rights and the US constitution (and are gearing up to do SCOTUS challenges if it passes). Even some of its supporters agree that implementing some parts of it are impossible, and the rest of it is wide open to abuse. Yet the GoDaddy GoTo guy gives it a thumbs up. Now, rightfully, everyone else is giving GoDaddy a thumbs down. Go figure!
The issue is that GoDaddy didn't really reverse their stance, at least not where it counts. They now claim to not support the SOPA bill as written, but they still agree with it for the most part, which isn't surprising since the more or less wrote the thing.
GoDaddy stopped openly supporting SOPA; they did not reverse their stance. Maybe they should have considered this outcome before being all loud-mouthy and supportive of something which directly goes against what the vast majority of their customers want.
I applaud this move by Wikipedia and hope many others follow suit.
Hey, dickheads, yeah you, Mr Shakedown Artist politician. You and your dipshit friends jumped the shark tank with this one.
GoDaddy is just a precursor of what is going to happen to your political careers. It's a snack for us, a little bit of blood to tithe us over until we can mash the vote button for the other guy so hard it breaks. You can tell the other bums huddling around the burn barrel keeping warm. "I was a rich Congressman until I got fucking stupid and greedy. GOD DAMN YOU SOPA....I had a life!"
Yeah, it's going to be like that.
Take the Red Pill.
Can someone explain why GoDaddy would support SOPA in the first place?
1. Politicians and government no longer represent what the people want. The bribary by the copyright lobby has gone way beyond the pale, and the political corruption of government seems unstoppable.
2. Politicians and government are now costing businesses money. While traditionally the government has supported businesses more than individuals, this has now reached the point where business finds itself at odds with the customers that provide its income, and that is a terminal situation.
The messages are pretty clear. What's unclear is where this is going, other than sending SOPA to hell.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
GoDaddy helped WRITE SOPA...they're exempt from many of its negative effects.
A cat with claws is still a cat with claws even if its hiding them.
Okay, I read into their statement incorrectly about the opposing it. However, my statement regarding them supporting the next SOPA-clone is still in line with their own statement. http://techland.time.com/2011/12/23/godaddy-reverses-position-on-sopa-yanks-support/
Losing these a handful of big websites doesn't cost Godaddy more than $100 a year. The negative publicity affects them much worse.
I think what is really needed is to get all the big name companies together and sponsor research into an alternative to DNS that can't be touched by any government and you can't sue for trademark infringement. Perhaps some combination of public key encryption and p2p. Then webpages the world over could provide links to the public key to search for. Instead of being able to directly go to a website you would need to go through (gasp) a search engine, then forever hence your web browser could find the site. Perhaps the public keys could even be encoded in those newfangled 2d bar codes.
if SOPA does become a reality, the ultimate power lies with *the* authoritative registry (nic) for each tld and cctld (e.g. verisign, neustar, etc) anyway. if an isp or host won't comply with a sopa 'request', the complainer will just go up the food chain.
I wish I knew a few things before transferring my domains. I hope you find this useful.
There are at least 2 registrars who will donate $1 to EFF for each domain transferred to them:
1. namecheap.com (use coupon code SOPAsucks for a nice discount, I paid $7.17 per domain transfer + whois privacy) ...)
2. gandi.net ($8 for domain transfer + free SSL cert + free whois privacy +
I wish I knew that:
1. namecheap.com offers SSL cert for $1.99 extra -- that you can use for ANY domain including ones you don't register with them.
Since I didn't need SSL for the domains I transferred, I skipped this offer and am kicking myself for not getting a few certs
2. gandi.net offers SSL cert for free with each transfer and it only costs $8 (US) and they provide whois privacy
there were posts about gandi.net being more expensive than others, so I assumed the worst and found otherwise today
Now you know of 2 registrars giving you a domain name, SSL cert and whois privacy for under $10, PLUS they donate a buck to EFF.
I transferred around 12 domains to namecheap.com for $7.17/domain and will transfer additional domains requiring SSL to gandi.net for $8/domain.
If you know of other registrars (not owned by godaddy) who will donate $1 or more for each transfer, then reply here with their coupon code, etc.
Things to remember when transferring from godaddy:
1. First, unlock your domain at the godaddy website
2. Get your authorization codes from godaddy website
3. Cancel your whois privacy at godaddy's: DomainsByProxy.com
4. Make sure your Administrative Contact's email address is correct so you can respond
(note that some changes like Company Name, etc. will lock your domain for 60 days!)
5. And finally, initiate the transfer at your new registrar
I found these instructions helpful when transferring my domains today:
http://www.sitepoint.com/godaddy-supports-sopa-heres-how-to-transfer-your-domains/
Here's your chance to vote with your wallet AND save money. If you procrastinate, you'll probably end up renewing with godaddy the night before your expiration and pay them a heck of a lot more than these prices. Transfer today and benefit.
There is not enough evidence in Method320's post to support the conclusion that he didn't comprehend or appreciate the humor of the parent posts.
Funny coincidence, five minutes ago, the Wikipedia funding request hit my mailbox. Says they stop asking for funds every year once they hit a goal...but alas this year did not make it.
Really, it is a very impressive service to offer with, as the letter says, 679 servers and 95 staff. They keep it all very, very tight. I felt good donating this year, and that was BEFORE the SOPA thing.
It would be really handy to be able to easily identify web sites that are registered with GoDaddy. That way we could politely request that the admins use an alternative registrar.
They did not change their position. They released some PR damage control to fool people; apparently it worked on you.
Can someone explain why GoDaddy would support SOPA in the first place?
http://GoDaddy-is-the-son-of-Satan.org/
Maybe GoDaddy belongs in part or entirely to a Media Conglomerate now?
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
I personally recommend Name.com; they have a nice, clean interface, and they're giving a discount for transfers from GoDaddy with the code "NODADDY".
in a few weeks. i have 4-5 domains there.
Read radical news here
Amazingly, there is a specific exemption for a few sites inside SOPA, of which GoDaddy is one. -__- The corruption knows no bounds.
godaddy supports sopa because of exemption Quote,
"Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), the only member of Congress present at the hearing with any tech experience, having founded several web companies... Polis pointed out that SOPA and Smith’s amendment already excluded certain operators of sub-domains, such as GoDaddy.com, from being subject to shutdowns under SOPA. If companies like GoDaddy.com are exempt, why aren’t non-commercial domain servers exempt?” Polis asked."
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
...I guess. http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57349913-281/godaddy-bows-to-boycott-now-opposes-sopa-copyright-bill/
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Wrong.
GoDaddy, the domain register targeted by online activists in response to its enthusiasm for a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills, has finally denounced the legislation in response to a boycott scheduled for today.
Warren Adelman, the company's chief executive, said today that "GoDaddy opposes SOPA," meaning the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is facing a House of Representatives committee vote next month.
A GoDaddy spokeswoman confirmed to CNET this afternoon that "we oppose PIPA, as well." That's the Senate bill known as Protect IP, which will be debated on the Senate floor January 24. (See CNET's SOPA FAQ.)
A couple of points: 1) From what other here are saying, GoDaddy helped write the stupid bill, and is exempt from many portions of it. 2) Violating civil liberties is a favorite pasttime for ultra right-wing wackos. It's no coincidence that GoDaddy is located here in Scottsdale, Arizona, home to tons of ultra right-wing wackos. Avoid any company located in Scottsdale like the plague. That includes DomainsByProxy.com.
Presumably, the news reports of their explicit statement that they now oppose SOPA (as well as the SOPA-alternative, PIPA, being advanced in the Senate.)
It's worse than that, even: Go Daddy even publicly still supports SOPA!
It's an post from October, but it's still up, un-edited, so I can only conclude that, when Jones says
That myopic view has never been shared by Go Daddy.
In our view, Internet policy should strive to balance the sometimes competing goals of the global free flow of information (which is clearly critical to U.S. businesses), with enforcement of the rule of law. We don't see those competing goals as mutually exclusive, but rather, complimentary. In fact, that balance is essential to a flourishing, yet safe, Internet.
it's still valid Go Daddy policy.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I keep forgetting that they're exempt. How is that not sufficiently blatantly anti-competitive that some sort of regulatory agency is forced to stop it?
I explicitly release the above into the public domain.
How about this instead: http://en.gandi.net/no-bullshit
This philosophy alone wins against any other business model, hands down.
Now donating money to Wikipedia is especially powerful. It supports a public benefit org that sticks to its principles of openness, and takes money from GoDaddy which is a scumbag operation. And gives that money to GoDaddy's competitors, which sticks it to GoDaddy some more.
Want to help kill SOPA and the rest of the slaver culture working against us? Give to Wikipedia now. And help pay for all those articles you've been reading, too.
--
make install -not war
Uh... I'm no fan either, but it seems clear that they in fact DID reverse their stance: http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/go-daddys-position-on-sopa
Can someone explain why GoDaddy would support SOPA in the first place?
http://GoDaddy-is-the-son-of-Satan.org/
I would have modded AC up, but that link wasn't clickable, so instead FTFY. It took me a couple of seconds, but once you get it, it is an excellent explanation why Go Daddy would love SOPA and it's ilk.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
I try and donate a little each year to wiki, so I am glad that none of that money goes to godaddy. For this reason and many others...
One more discovery now that my domains started getting transferred over from Godaddy to Namecheap.
My new registrar shows up as "ENOM, INC." instead of "Namecheap" -- call me vain, but this is a nice surprise.
Like this: ...
Domain Name:
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Admit it, how many of you didn't want to go with "Namecheap" because you don't what that "cheap" registrar name when someone does a WHOIS lookup?
Still, I may go with gandi.net for my other domains (not at Godaddy but much more expensive than these deals.) Something about having ALL my domains under one registrar makes me a bit nervous so I prefer to use at least 2...
Screwing around I found the domain name dumpgodaddy is blocked from Godaddy.com :)
I might be wrong but I found it humorous
Invalid Search: DUMPGODADDY has been removed. Please select a different domain name to search on.
Checking http://www.robtex.com/ there is no dumpgodaddy.anything
Grooveshark Support free speech on the web. We just moved 70+ domains from @godaddy to @namecheap while supporting @eff: tny.gs/tM5exW #SOPAsucks
Disclosure: I moved my single domain still at GD away to namecheap as well, but have nothing to do with either.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
Does anybody know where 1&1 is on the whole SOPA thing?
Bow before me, for I am root.
Have they undone the damage? Is it even possible for them at this point? This is one of those: you can't be trusted with internet tech if you ever thought it might be a good idea cases.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Quoting from TC article...
The statement is from our newly appointed CEO, who makes it clear, we don’t just ‘not support SOPA,’ Go Daddy OPPOSES SOPA.
“We have observed a spike in domain name transfers, which are running above normal rates and which we attribute to GoDaddy’s prior support for SOPA, which was reversed,” said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman. “Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.”
source
Too late as far as I'm concerned... it's like cheating on your wife and then saying sorry... it does not wash it away...
Excellent, informative post. Thank you, I'm posting a link to your post to a mailing list with a couple dozen friends who have personal domains.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
uh, that redirects to godaddy.com
at least they're creative when buying up hate domains.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
So, the only thing they oppose is the fact that tech companies are boycotting them over it. They absolutely and unequivocally support the CONTENT of the bill. Their old statement said as much, they although they are withdrawing their support, they still absolutely agree with the bill. More-or-less that the only thing that they oppose is the backlash they're getting.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Very nice. A friend of mine just wrote an easy to use cloud app that does many of these steps automatically. Free yourself from GoDaddy!
https://laterdaddy.herokuapp.com/
Slashdotter, ID #101. UIDs are in binary, right?
exact opposite
there is no phone number on the site. Support is only through live chat and a support ticket.
A support ticket, for a volume discount, took a day to respond to.
Not impressed and looking elsewhere.
You can do whatever you want to almost anything you want and people will suck it up and take it.
But DON"T fuck with the Net.
Godaddy is the current registrar used when signing up for apps for business. Google provides a clean interface that automates most of the tasks, and takes no money either (although they do get you to open a checkout account to process purchases fm godaddy). Wonder if they are working on a switch?
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
We used Tucows for over 10 years. It is a much better registrar than GoDaddy. Way to go Wikipedia.
They only recanted when it became clear that some of their customers were wearing Big Boy pants and hats.
So screw them, to even contemplate supporting SOPA was absolutely unforgivable, I hope they die penniless in a gutter.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I'm all for donating to the causes I support: I donate monthly to Red Cross, Amnesty International and two environmental organizations. I'm also a registered member of a political party, so I essentially donate to them annually. When faced between pirating stuff and supporting the services I find useful, I choose the latter (I pay for Spotify, Netflix, GOG.com and Humble Bundles) .
That said, Wikipedia won't get a penny from me, even though I fully support the service they provide.
The thing is, I disagree with Wikipedia's policy of not having ads. I really doubt it would ruin the credibility of the service if they adopted a policy of "We'll have one google adsense element in the right column, until donations+ad revenue has paid for our running expenses for that year". It would be efficient and - more importantly - a lot less annoying and confusing than the massive "PLEASE DONATE, HERE IS A PIC OF AN EDITOR" banners. I've seriously considered blocking those in adblock, even though I don't block non-intrusive ads... If they're not willing to do something that small for the convenience of their users, just because they believe it's at odds with some ideal I don't personally support, I don't think that it makes sense for me to pay them. I'm pretty confident that they'll end up adopting ads at some point anyways. When that happens, if they still don't have enough money, I'll donate.
So because you object to the ads in Wikipedia (the please donate banners), you will not give Wikipedia the money that lets them not have ads.
I essentially stated that Wikipedia has two options:
1) Add small, non-intrusive ads (such as Google AdSense text ads banner to one column). Remove the ads when you have enough money (through ad revenue and contributions) for the year. It's likely that the required sum would even be gathered faster and everyone would be better off.
2) Have a massive (it takes up slightly over 10% of my 23", 1920x1080px screen!) and disruptive (I find it disorienting when I visit a page about a person and the first thing I see is a large image of someone completely else... just about the headline that's the person's name!) banner at the top of the page. Keep doing that even though it's clearly ineffective way to gather money (thus, keep the banner there indefinitely).
Wikipedia has chosen option 2, which I find unnecessary and borderline-absurd. If I donated them money now, it would be me supporting that option, which I certainly don't want to do. I believe that they will eventually see the reason and (have to) go with the number 1. If that doesn't generate enough revenue, I'll reconsider donating.
Do you really find this line reasoning so incomprehensible, was my earlier presentation too confusing or what's the problem?
GoDaddy stopped it's support of SOPA, why are companies still walking away? If GoDaddy is now on board to fight against SOPA, then aren't they going to need a customer base a reason to fight?
http://blog.nearlyfreespeech.net/2011/12/24/welcome-sopa-refugees/
Verblessing weirdlier enlanguages moreish.
Uh, point obviously being that under SOPA they wouldn't need to buy up hate domains; they could just seize the domain if anyone tried to register one.
The...... whole...... point..... is..... that.... all.... hate.... domains... will.... get.... redirected.... to.... Go Daddy.... even.... if.... they.... had.... legitmate.... content.... at.... one.... point.... that's.... why.... Go Daddy.... is.... supporting.... S...O....P...A...
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
I also hear that apparently GoDaddy gets to be one of the registrars of choice for where the government puts seized sites. Sounds like free money.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".