back to article Go Daddy boycott threat for backing hated anti-piracy law

Internet users have called for a boycott of web hosting giant Go Daddy over its public support of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US. While the company has publicly supported SOPA and similarly controversial proposed legislation for months, its position went largely unnoticed until a thread on Reddit gained legs yesterday. …

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  1. Aaron Em

    I'm sure Bob Hoskins

    is just trembling in his elephant-shooting boots.

    1. Aaron Em

      Hoskins, Parsons, whatever. Bob something. It's the 23rd of December, what are you doing sober?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Who's sober here?

        It's good to talk drunk.

    2. C 2
      Go

      I think you missed something..

      The last bit about how big their business is and how this isn't hurting them ..

      **

      "Go Daddy has received some emails that appear to stem from the boycott prompt, but we have not seen any impact to our business. We understand there are many differing opinions on the SOPA regulations."

      Go Daddy says it registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. It is responsible for well over a third of all .com domains registered today, not including its resellers' sales.

      **

      Its pretty obvious bluster, they are hurting and they are afraid of anyone figuring that out.

      Continue the attack!!

  2. John Lilburne

    Screw em ...

    ... I'm not moving my GD sites.

  3. John Lilburne
    Stop

    reality check

    "SOPA will compel American internet users to use workaround DNS services operated by criminals overseas, increasing the likelihood of phishing and fraud."

    Only if said American Internet users are intent on dealing with phishing and fraudulent sites. Isn't SOPA meant to stop them from unwittingly doing business with such sites?

    1. KjetilS
      Stop

      That might be the intent, but in reality the only ones who will really get hurt by this is the legitimate sites and users.

      It is actually extremely difficult to steer clear of being an infringer based on the wording of SOPA.

      1. John Lilburne
        FAIL

        Says who?

        @KjetilS Lets have the the reasoning behind "extremely difficult to steer clear of ..." statement. Not some Google shill site parroting bollocks but real actual wording of the act as of today. Google are pissed cos they have already been caught flogging counterfeit drugs, and this may make it harder for them to do the same again. So information from none theives, and none profiteers from counterfeiters would be cool.

        1. Galidron
          Flame

          @John Lilburne

          Yes and none of the sites that were took down by ICE earlier this year were legit. Well except for the ones that were taken down that were legitimate. SOPA allows the RIAA and the MPAA to take down sites at will without allowing the sites an opportunity to defend themselves. But I guess the RIAA has never falsely accused anyone of stealing before so we don't have to worry about it happening again.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Umm

      Use European based DNS servers - Hardly rocket science!

    3. Stevelane
      Headmaster

      Fog

      Americans especially have been living in a strange place since 911. They claim freedom yet beg for the protection that an all pervasive State claims to give. That protection involves blindfolds, gags and chains. Your elections are an illusion run on privately owned secret software.

      It is ironic that the terrors of Communism you thought you have defeated are being rolled on to you by your capitalist owners. Wake up!!!

  4. Stuart 22

    Nope - i'm doing better things on December 29th. Besides I've got another european based registrar to whom domains will be moved if GD should become a problem for me.

    Until then this event won't register the smallest blip on the GD control panel. You can't change monsters but you can avoid them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      moving domains

      Several posts have commented that they may move their domains.

      Whilst thist might seem the way to avoid SOPA, IMHO, it is not.

      As long as you have a domain whoose TLD is controlled by a US Company then the long arm of SOPA can get you taken down.

      You have to move to a different TLD as hinted at in the article.

      The US Gov or its agents can instruct any registrar of a .com or other US based TLD to be removed. There is not DMCA appeals or anything. You are dead, gone, buried.

      As John Cleese would say,

      "This is an ex-domain."

      I fear the next step for the SOPA supporters is to 'persuade' other countries that SOPA is a jolly good thing and get them to sign up thus extending the reach of SOPA to other TLD's.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        re: moving domains

        You seem to have missed the point of the boycott - it's to persuade GD to stop supporting the proposed act, not to avoid infringing or becoming a victim of it should it be enacted.

  5. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Down

    rejected != refuted

    "Go Daddy's Jones has refuted this, writing last month: "

    Refute: vb - Prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false; disprove.

    Reject: vb - Dismiss as inadequate, inappropriate, or not to one's taste.

    I see nothing in her statement that proves that it will not break DNSSEC except that she finds this "hard to imagine" (how much tech knowledge does a "General Counsel" have?)

    As for "I have to believe that the average person doesn’t want to commit a crime", she complains about "rhetoric" and "regurgitated lobbying spin", yet she's doing exactly the same by parroting the words of the MPAA/ RIAA who are still trying to redefine the language by saying that people are "stealing" music because the media industry want to keep using an obsolete (but profitable to them) revenue model.

    1. John Lilburne
      FAIL

      Hey Einstien ...

      ... how does DNS filtering of pirate site break DNSSEC, but DNS filter of spam sites does not?

      1. Ramshackle

        @John Lilburne

        It's not just technical issues that are a problem, the legislation could effectively "break" DNSSEC:

        http://www.itnews.com.au/News/284837,anti-piracy-bill-could-kill-dnssec.aspx

        When you get down to it security and privacy measures are pretty much diametrically opposed to censorship and monitoring measures. You can't stop people doing something if you can't see what they're doing and block it.

        1. John Lilburne
          FAIL

          JOO FULZ

          @Ramshackle Those self same 'experts' in that stupid article are the self same 'experts' that devised DNS filtering for spammer sites.

          http://www.hightechforum.org/dns-filtering-is-essential-to-the-internet/

          Baa, Baa DNS filtering BAAAD, Baa, Baa, DNS filtering Good.

      2. Shannon Jacobs
        Holmes

        Only intersection of spam with this topic?

        My main consideration would be the spammers, who are still the #1 problem of email and who are still funded primarily via their spammer websites. From that perspective, I might consider GoDaddy's arguments as having slight merit. Since their is no mention of spam in the original article and only one mention in the comments (in the post to which I'm replying), then I take it their position is not strongly related to stopping spammers.

        Ergo, nothing I've read so far has made a persuasive defense of SOPA. Awful or terrible is not a major distinction.

  6. Roger Stenning

    Just another hosting service to avoid, then.

    Glad I'm not hosting with them. Be interesting to see what he's got to say in a years' time, mind.

    1. perlcat
      Big Brother

      Their support is shite

      That's why I don't use them. I left when it became apparent that they truly hate customers.

  7. Armando 123
    Devil

    On the bright side

    It could lead to the end to those annoying Danica Patrick ads(*).

    (*) Assuming any Danica Patrick ad isn't annoying

  8. Mr Brush
    FAIL

    US Webmasters need not worry

    United States Senator Roy Blunt wrote this in response to a letter questioning SOPA:

    "I am a cosponsor of the Protect IP Act which would cut off foreign websites dedicated to counterfeiting and piracy that steal American jobs, hurt the economy, and harm customers. It would allow the Justice Department to file a civil action against those who have registered or own a domain name linked to an infringing website. The bill does not allow the Justice Department to target domain names registered by a U.S. entity."

    Read that last bit again: " The bill does not allow the Justice Department to target domain names registered by a U.S. entity."

    So if the nasty pirates are American, there's nothing SOPA can do about it. Epic Fail!

    http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2584140&cid=38449002

    1. ArmanX
      FAIL

      If the pirates are in America, then they are already under jurisdiction

      SOPA can't touch them, but it doesn't need to. There's a reason most "nasty pirate" websites are not hosted on American soil...

      That still means that companies that aren't in the US can be blocked completely from the US - even companies who make most of their money from American traffic.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      that's because

      The RIAA/MPAA can already just block any US site without evidence by having a quick word with their friends in homeland security.

      http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57339569-281/dhs-abruptly-abandons-copyright-seizure-of-hip-hop-blog

      Apart from the genius of banning a site for playing music that the same record company had sent them to promote - you have to be a little suspicious when it's the anti-terrorist department of Homeland security that's blocking a music site. So the SOPA would never of course be used to block access to an Occupy or Greenpeace or anti-war or Democratic party site

      1. perlcat
        Big Brother

        Oppressors don't have a political party

        so you can also see it being used on conservative, Republican, or pro-gun sites.

  9. Quxy
    Devil

    GoDaddy's shoddy service,...

    ...deceptive TOS, and scummy marketing tactics were already plenty of reasons for any knowledgeable sysadmin to avoid them. Who needs another to boycott them?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds like another load of hot air from those making a fuss.

    Now don't get me wrong, SOPA is the biggest threat to internet freedom ever. Just have to imagine how many forum mods are going to be pulling posts left, right and center for fear of falling foul of this utterly shit law should it be enacted, thus losing their sites for weeks in court hearings.

    I just see a lot of people shouting about moving their domains off GD and I wonder how many will actually bother to do it and how much of difference it will make to GD? From what I gather GD are pretty much a laughing stock but they do hold shedloads of domains, how many will it have to lose before it tips the balance and makes them actually sit up and take notice?

    I sincerely hope that they do bring GD down for this but in the long run way to many other companies are supporting this SOPA shit. If you want to make a difference refuse to by any of Disney's lowest common-denominator shite, picket the various Disney stores for example. That would make a real difference if a big player like Disney suddenly took a massive smack in the chops from consumers over this, in addition it can involve everyone not just geeks who understand the niche area such as domain administration.

    Any time the geeks get riled a lot of hot air is expended saying this and that will happen ( anonymous bring down Facebook? ) but in the end it never comes to pass as there simply isn't the numbers, you need something everyone can get behind. Stop buying DVDs, CDs, MP3s from iTunes or the latest cack meal plus Disney toy from Burger King. If everyone did that for just one weekend all over the world, these companies would pull out quicker than a TV evangelist caught in a motel room!

    1. Chris Parsons

      A well-reasoned post, thank you. I rather think we get the world we (ie, the majority) really want. And most want Disney, Burger King etc, the true opiate of the masses. Most -ie not the typical Reg reader - would neither know nor care about the implications of SOPA, and sadly, that's the way it will always be.

  11. Kevin 6

    Well non-us piracy sites should be happy in theory. if they submit themselves to be blocked then the majority of the idiot laden big companies when they do a google search it will turn up nothing where as the rest of the world, and smart people in the US that will swap to a EU DNS server will be free to browse, and pirate as much as they want off the sites.

    Ahh ways to abuse this

  12. Outcast !!!
    FAIL

    Er...

    What the fuck is wrong for buying fake and cheap stuff?

    1. ArmanX
      Joke

      Says the person who has OBVIOUSLY never owned a REAL Gucci handbag. *sniff*

      The unwashed masses should never have a say in what we, the true People, must do, for the Good of All. Besides, Everyone knows that only the poor, destitute Criminal Class buys cheap merchandise.

      Plebeian.

      1. BrownishMonstr

        I'd rather buy the real stuff because I generally believe the quality will reflect the higher cost, which tends to be true most of the time.

        But then I bought the Monster Dr Dre Tour Beats headphones, and their quality was crap. Within the duration of 6 months they broke twice because of the cable becoming 'loose' at one or both ends. For £100+ headphones, they're not much better than £40 Sennheiser CX300--I bet the price was mostly for the packaging and brand name. Had I known a lot of people would be walking around with them, that they don't stick in your ear when walking, and that the manufacturing was shoddy, I would never had even considered buying them for their style.

        Why mention this story(?), because a friend's fake headphones were just as good in terms of sound quality and not much more than a tenner-- but then he doesn't have the oh-so-pretty packaging that gathers dust, like I do.

        I admit, mistakes were made--and no matter how many times I lash myself, the past cannot be changed.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Petzl

          It's a legitimate concern for some companies.

          Petzl - the headlamp and climbing gear company - came in for a lot of flak for supporting SOPA because they have a reasonable concern that buying fake climbing gear from "petzl.cn" might get people killed - as well as costing them sales.

          http://www.petzl.com/us/outdoor/news-2/2011/12/22/petzl-americas-stance-sopa-and-protect-ip

          1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
            Thumb Down

            You wanna crimb mountain?

            If you up the Matterhorn with gear you only pretend you are sure about, you get all you deserve.

    2. Arnie
      Stop

      +1 - buyer beware. If you want a $10 Rolex that loses a hour a day what's the fucking problem? Rolex haven't lost a sale it's not like you could afford one. ffs. I bet the directors of big corps. all sit around patting each other on the back telling each other how strong their brands identity is. Yet they get all pissy about counterfeit goods being bought by poor plebs who can only aspire to the lifestyle they sell. bullshit

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    People still have sites with GD? ;-)

    Quite frankly I think GD is a very good company when it comes to domain registration, SSL certificates and stuff in between (free e-mail with your domain for example; its a nice gesture).

    But for everything else I'm not too happy with them anymore, especially not their hosting services. I got a 'virtual dedicated server' running on CentOS 5 and a freely "turbo admin panel" (which isn't too shabby; even written in Java which is IMO pretty solid). Of course I replaced it with Webmin and everything seemed just fine. The server was located in their Dutch data center in Amsterdam and I guess I was one of the "early adopters" (not that early; but early enough).

    The server ran excellent for 2 years (I rented it for 3). Right until the moment I wanted to utilize it for more serious business 2 months ago. For reasons totally unknown it became heavily unresponsive, sometimes it would be unreachable for hours, only until I performed a reboot.

    At first I suspected a DoS of some sort, but research showed that there was no such thing going on. There was some heavy UDP traffic, but that was due to the Bind DNS server running on it. Support could only tell me that "the server responded fine after a reboot" which was absolutely true. Unfortunately that moment only lasted so long after which things became unresponsive again.

    I didn't even bother anymore and moved on.

  14. Octoberon
    Unhappy

    Do The Right Thing...Whatever You Think That Is

    I'm not in favour of SOPA and I wasn't very impressed with Hoskins' elephant antics. The justifications given for both appear commercially driven at best, and rather arrogant at worst.

    I'm a GoDaddy customer but I'll be moving my domains to another registrar now. Not because I expect that to have any impact on GoDaddy's profits, but because my conscience tells me it's the right thing to do. That's reason enough.

  15. Octoberon
    WTF?

    Oops

    Hang on...Bob Hoskins? Oh you know who I mean.

  16. mizerydearia
    Mushroom

    Bitcoin

    I've contributed some effort to spread awareness within the Bitcoin community at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=55491

  17. The Alpha Klutz

    WRONG SIR, WRONG

    YOU PIRATED FIZZY LIFTING DRINKS, YOU BUMPED INTO THE CEILING WHICH NOW HAS TO BE WASHED, AND STERILIZED, SO YOU GET NOTHING. YOU LOSE. GOOD DAY SIR.

  18. Tony Green

    the big ones are starting to move

    Jimmy Wales has announced that Wikipedia will be leaving GoDaddy over this. https://twitter.com/#!/jimmy_wales/status/150287579642740736"

    Though given the number of complaints about their services I keep seeing on Digg, I'm surprised more people haven't buggered off already.

  19. sueme2
    Paris Hilton

    motherhood

    This is like motherhood, read the promo, the blurb, and it looks all nice, bright, glowy, and intrinsically ...

    However the means, the method, the execution, are more akin to rape.

    Thanks but no thanks.

    Even a dumb blond can pick the difference.

  20. TheKeffster
    FAIL

    Quickest backpedal ever

    It seems they now no longer support SOPA. My my, it seems money talks...

    Quickest backpedal ever?

    1. Quxy
      FAIL

      Not backpedalling, just waiting for things to quiet down

      They've been working with Congresscritters for some three years to draft SOPA, so they're not really backpedalling. This is just a matter of waiting until the hue and cry dies down, to allow the bill to be introduced quietly: "Getting [SOPA] right is worth the wait... as a company that is all about innovation, with our own technology and in support of our customers, Go Daddy is rooted in the idea of First Amendment Rights and believes 100 percent that the Internet is a key engine for our new economy," weaseled [GoDaddy CEO].

  21. BitDr

    I think gotrdaddy needs their toy taken from them. I'll be moving the domains I have with them as soon as alternates are in place.

  22. Jacqui

    IMHO GD == Spam

    I have found that roughly 40% of the spam I get is somehow linked to either a GD or PP domain

    (if we ignore the apnic traffic).

    For my personal use, blacklisting GD and PP domains works well. -Very few GD domains need whitelisting.

    Note that I did contact GD regarding the abusive domains they were hosting (obvoiusly fakes reg details, proof of clicktrhoughs etc) but never recvd a single response over a period of two or so years and the spam domains remained active... Perhaps if GD were to start removing some of these domains and some of the clickservers they host, thier legal and moral ethics would hold some water.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    American freetards rejoice

    You will continue to be allowed to steal.

  24. AJames

    GoDaddy has no business using my money to advocate a political agenda I don't agree with. I'm moving my 7 domains.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hate does not change law

    People are free to take their business where ever they like but hating is not going to change law. All civilized countries are enacting more severe punishment for piracy. Mandatory prison time seems to have gotten the attention of some pirate. That's a good start.

  26. bruceld
    Go

    Tittle

    As if SOPA is gonna stop anything. If anything it'll help innovate those who are victims of this amendment to get around blocks and bypass filters, while the corporations sit around and rot in their own piles of useless sh*t from failing to actually innovate and to convince consumers that their crap is worth buying in the first place.

    SOPA will stop nothing. We'll all just become smarter and wiser and figure out to get around them. Perhaps we should all setup dedicated computers with terabytes of files being shared on a dedicated open wifi in all of our neighbourhoods all around the world.

    They call us criminals and thieves. Well there are more 'thieves' than there are corporations, lawyers and law enforcement officers. Therefore trying to stop us, fighting us and threatening us is also entirely useless.

    I say...bring it on.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thankfully not everyone is a lawless twit

    SOPA will only apply to the 5% of society that are scumbag criminals who think they are above the law. The other 95% of society will be happy to see these criminals held accountable for their actions.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: only apply to scumbag criminals

      until of course some innocents get swept up along with them, with no recourse to proper justice.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NDAA + SOPA + PIPA or whatever = I'm out.

    I yanked all my hosting and domains. I won't renew. Everything is now dark. I won't be a target. All I was was a public access tv show. BUT... the problem is, all it would take is someone to point their finger at me. It doesn't matter what the TRUTH is.

    So screw everyone.

    Bands get no promotions.

    Labels don't get their stuff aired.

    Hosting doesn't get paid

    Domains don't get paid

    ISP doesn't get paid.

    Access looses a show (Programming content)

    Access looses a member (dues etc)

    No more need to buy updated video software.

    750k viewers snuffed.

    Restore the rule of law (and Constitution in the USA) and I will be happy to come back. If not, then when this current ISP agreement runs out, I won't be back (even to read this post)

    Understand, I Live and Breath Tech, it HURTS to kill off your websites of 6+ years. Let's see you close your youtube account and hundreds of videos go poof.. Yeah I am that serious. And yeah, I already did it. It's done, they are gone. You want to host a video that someone can clam some crap on? Host it yourself. I already had warnings on Youtube, and I was on "the list." Where "the list" allows you to be white listed by the labels.

    I just don't need the trouble. I don't need DHS saying some metal video was terrorism and raiding my crap at 3AM.

    The future is FASCISM and it won't be ending well.

    1. Steven Roper
      Thumb Up

      Well done

      We need more people like you, ready to make such sacrifices to drive home the point that these endless laws are going way too far. That's 750,000 people who now know about this issue and may feel impelled to write letters to politicians in response. Good stuff!

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    GoDaddy has been evil for some time...

    I moved my domains away from GD YEARS ago.

    Why?

    1) Their servers are overloaded and slow, if you are planning using their email services don't bother. Often very slow (as in hours sometimes days to deliver an email), with frequent outages.

    2) If you happen to have a high traffic/value domain, Godaddy has proven that they will jump at the slightest opportunity to snatch it, this usually happens when someone forgets to renew, but I've heard of other situations.

    3) they are behaving more and more like a monopoly, like Microsoft, arrogant and asinine.

    The only reason they became as big as they are would be the TV ads with scantily clad women with big boobs ... played during the super bowl.

    Proving that guys that stick with them are thinking with the wrong head.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Boo Hoo

    Reality is a bitch when you get caught pirating.

  31. Tom 7

    I hope SOPA is passed

    because the rest of the world might just wake up and realise that leaving effective control of the internet to a bunch of monopolist luddites is a really dangerous thing and move it to a more universal standing before the US does something really really stupid.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As long as they keep locking up pirates, progress is being made

    The only good pirate is dead or in prison.

  33. Hollow
    FAIL

    Pirates are essential

    ... and anyone who says otherwise is a complete retard. If it weren't for pirates, we might still be sailing ships with actual sails, firing canons rather than missiles and torpedos etc. Technology is developed to meet a need more than anything else, it's to scratch an itch and one big itch, is piracy, always has been, always will be. We'd still be using VHS and our computers would still be slow and shit without pirates too.

    Regardless of what some of you goody two shoes idiots may say about pirates being scum and lowlife, they're the reason half the innovation that goes on, goes on. In order to keep innovating a reason is needed. Profit is not a reason, because people will keep buying the same stuff if they can, so profit will still be made by the corporations, but nothing will be developed as fast. Sure we need to keep them under control, but that's what the innovations are about, this SOPA bollocks is the same as the bloody patent war bollocks, it's a corporate entity thinking "What's the easiest way I can make more money, without actually having to fight back, I know, I'll litigate and make everyones life miserable and poorer"

    In the SOPA case, it's the media industry who can't be arsed to find a new way to do business that makes it harder for the pirates to do anything about it, in the patent wars case, it's companies like Apple wanting to stay as top dog, they don't want to have to KEEP innovating, because they're crap at it, they want to stop others using what's already there, so that they then innovate instead and Apple can then steal it, patent it and make profit.

    Before any appletards reply to this, go look up how Apple and Microsoft even got started, go look up what they stole, to get where they are today, sad as it is, if they hadn't been PIRATES, we'd still be using black and green console screens for our desktops. Apple even flew a pirate flag above it's HQ for a while!

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lock up Bill Gates too

    There's no reason to stop with just pirates when you can imprison Bill Gates for 30 years for chronic violation of anti-trust laws. I'm sure Bill, Assange and McKinnon could have some good discussions on why they are in prison for the next 30 years.

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