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Topic: Legal

Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

Summary: Go Daddy, the prominent Internet domain registry, is still supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act... sort of, kind of

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

By for Networking |

Go Daddy and Congress got along well in 2005 in one of the company s trademark ads, it's another story in 2011 with SOPA.

Go Daddy and Congress in 2005 in one of the company's trademark ads,

It's one thing for congresscritters who wouldn't known an Internet Protocol (IP) address from a domain name to support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), it's another thing entirely for a top Internet domain registry company like Go Daddy to support SOPA. I mean Internet companies may not know anything about the First Amendment—something like far too many Congressmen come to think of it--but Go Daddy should certainly know their Internet technologies and what their customers would think of Go Daddy fouling up their Internet.

What's that? Newly appointed Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman has yanked his company's support for SOPA. Really? Look at what he said again. He started fine, “Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the 'Stop Online Piracy Act' currently working its way through U.S. Congress.”

But, then Adelman started to waffle, "Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation--but we can clearly do better. It's very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

So, what does he really mean? Adelman certainly isn't repudiating SOPA. He just wants a badly crafted law to somehow be magically crafted into a good law. Yeah, like that's going to happen.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Adelman makes it clear that Go Daddy isn't so much rejecting SOPA as it is trying to duck out of the way of the fight between civil libertarians and the bought and paid for political hacks behind SOPA.

You can't blame him for dodging the issue. On December 23rd, Go Daddy lost 21,000 domains. This is not the news you want when you're new to the top job and you want to impress Go Daddy's new owners.

I think I have a better idea though. Rather than try to dance around SOPA, just say you'll have nothing more to do with it. Go Daddy can always support an intellectual property law in the future that doesn't throw the baby of privacy and due process out with the bathwater of piracy. If they do that, then maybe the people pulling their domains out of Go Daddy won't be so eager to leave the company behind. If Go Daddy doesn't? Well, there are hundreds of domain registrants who would be happy to take Go Daddy's business.

Related Stories:

Go Daddy spanks SOPA, yanks support

Dear Congressman Posey, SOPA is both dangerous and un-American

SOPA: So how much does it cost to buy off America's Internet freedom?

How SOPA would affect you: FAQ

Topics: Legal, Browser, Enterprise Software, Networking

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20 comments
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  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    Hit the nail on the head. Stop supporting SOPA, say that you will support a more reasonably written law in the future that only goes after FOR-PROFIT (meaning more than server costs) piracy and move on.
    Lerianis10
    Reply Vote

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  • Just get over it

    The gov't should worry about securing our border and investigating corruption in the entitlement programs instead of chasing stupid legislation. If people can steal something, they will. If it were cheap enough that it wasn't worth the trouble of stealing, people would pay for it, just look at iTunes. If a song is a $0.99 and in high resolution, it's not even worth looking for a free version. Vendors and customers are automatically regulated by the free market. Gov't intervention is not necessary and rarely helpful
    Antranig
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

      @Antranig

      I think you mean 'fidelity' instead of resolution for the songs, but you are right for MOST songs that are or once were Top 40. Anything more than 50 cents for a song that isn't or wasn't Top 40 is too much.
      Lerianis10
      Reply Vote

  • Grammar Nazi

    From the post: "This is not the news you want when your new to the top job and you want to impress Go Daddy???s new owners." Don't you mean "when you're new to the top job," rather than "your?" Cheers
    cmang
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

      @cmang Right you are! Thanks for the catch.

      Steven
      sjvn@...
      Reply Vote

  • Where's Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and the rest of the major web companies?

    Where's Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and the rest of the major web companies? They should be making all kinds of noise in response to this bill, it's not just Go Daddy. Let's root them out and expose them and ask them questions as to why they aren't fighting against this bill. If they don't fight against it, than we need to discontinue using their products, that includes Apple and Microsoft and the lot of em, there are other products out there.
    sysadminpunk
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

      @sysadminpunk

      Microsoft has already come out as saying that SOPA is an extremely bad idea as is. The thoughts behind it were good (cut down on PAY piracy) but they went too damned far in trying to make non-profit piracy a crime with criminal penalties.
      Heck, even civil penalties more than 10 times the cost of the product in question would be outrageous.

      The content makers need to wake up and realize that:

      1. THEY ARE LOSING OUT ON NO MONEY THROUGH 'PIRACY' EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF VIDEO GAMES. That is the only place where there is really a lot of 'piracy' that is not just paying for something in one way and wanting to use it on another thing (computer, netpad, etc.) that the content owners never thought of.

      2. The piracy above comes mainly from the prices for things being too rich for the average person. 60 dollars a console game? H E L L N O ! Too expensive for even lower-middle class people such as myself.
      Lerianis10
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    USA should be renamed to USA, Inc. So it becomes clear for even the most ignorant people that the corporates run this country. This bill only benefits a few elites and the big corporates, and it hurts anyone else plus it brings with it significant implications in regards to privacy and freedom of press. No wonder that on the "supporter list" for this bill you can find most big names of US corporates - which makes it clear who has the power in this country. Frightening that corporates and a few elites can "make" a law with the sole purpose of corporate profit...this is what America has become and this is WHY people are revolting on the streets! They can't take it anymore.
    flexy123
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

      @flexy123 Couldn't agree more. Our Congress persons are really whores who take money from corporations and try to push corporate interests into law. Actually, I'm giving whores a bad name here.
      augenj
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

        @Greywoof I wonder if "prostitutes" or Ladies of the Night will get bleeped out here? :-)
        augenj
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    Go Daddy may just top the list of the biggest assholes in tech this year: http://lit??tlebiggy.o??rg/viewSub??ject/46993??47
    littlebiggygirl
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    Any domain registrars out there that don't support SOPA? It'd be nice to update an IP address via wget which I use for Zoneedit.
    Grayson Peddie
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    Piracy is a legitimate issue; but so is privacy and due process of law. There needs to be a separation of the issues with intelligent and honest policies immune to abuse! This is much easier said than done when left to the public sector. <br><br>The private sector needs to step up and show the public sector what would be best for their industry and the Internet as a whole in this case. Anything else is a waste of time, money, man-hours and other resources not unlike any other public sector endeavor. <br><br>Godaddy can fix this and still come out a hero within the week, just in time for New Years! How? Easy! <br><br>Godaddy can publicly author the ideal version of such a piece of legislation as this. Then Godaddy merely openly asks the Internet community for it's support of the ideal version. Then it's up to the individuals ourselves as members of the Internet and citizens of the US to email our elected representatives and demand they do the right thing!

    Hope you're listening Godaddy! C'mon! We know you can do it!
    Zutronic
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    GoDaddy might have lost a number of customers.. but can we compare their history for the past few months and see if it is actually a dip? how many customers have they gained in this time period? i am not for sopa. i just want a clearer analysis.
    also for the record, microsoft is not against sopa. and it seems that sopa is a law for controlling internet under the garb of fighting piracy. it is not a badly formed law by ignorant politicians, but a carefully constructed one for achieving the singular purpose of taming the internet.
    xeptf4
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

      @xeptf4 <br>Exactly.<br>This law is designed to protect certain groups from the ordinary Internet user.<br><br>"How can we clamp down on the Internet?"<br>"People will get stroppy if we don't have a cover story."<br>"How about protecting the public from Paedophiles, Pirates and Terrorists?"<br>"That sounds convincing. Let's go with that."
      lehnerus2000
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    So far like others I would like to see a clear reason from the opposition. The opposition already is on the wrong foot by calling SOPA antithetical to the First amendment. It shows a clear misunderstanding of the Fist amendment. The purpose of the fisrt amendment is only between the government and its citizens. Concisely, government cannot suppress political speech and protest. Now what happens between individual citizens is another matter, one of property rights; the producer of the media and not the public has a right to determine distribution of media they produce. Produce can give it away or restrict distribution of media as they wish. Any other party, government, or individuals do not have the right to distribute media with out the producer???s authorization.
    The purpose of SOPA is not to silence free speech, yet one dose to have a free peach right to steal and or use media without the producers permission.
    I wish GoDaddy had a backbone to stand for the producers and not the looters.
    Scatcatpdx
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    What makes the impending legislation interesting is the fact that Go Daddy will be exempted from having to obey its stipulations, effectively giving it free reign and the proxy to continue its role as a server to large media outlets who stand to take market share from independent media agencies and re assert their dominance from cable, print media and if they play their cards right the internet...the final holy grail and until now the dominion of indie content providers.

    http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/12/sopa-backlash-sends-thousands-of-web-masters-leaving-go-daddy-whilst-the-main-stream-media-conspicuously-looks-the-other-way/
    scallywagy
    Reply Vote

  • If you're going to be swayed by boycotts...

    ...then it's better to keep your mouth shut. On the other side, if you really want people to speak their minds instead of conforming to someone else's party line, then you really shouldn't try to punish them for saying things you disagree with.
    John L. Ries
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Go Daddy's SOPA Entanglement

    There are laws accommodating one whose intellectual property is unlawfully distributed.
    BUT, SOPA allows a person with a complaint to leverage the AG to shut down the operations of an opponent without recourse.:

    It is as if you, as an owner of an apartment complex, had a tenant whose kid allegedly was observed selling a joint by a local pusher. That guy complains to Eric Holder who has your building cordoned off, the street signs removed, and the phone lines and cable cut off. No arrest, no indictment, no due process, no court appearance, and no conviction, but all the residents are blocked from their homes and guests and services are blocked, just because of a complaint.

    Sounds like a sweet deal for the Hollywood types.
    notme403@...
    Reply Vote
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