GoDaddy No Longer Supports SOPA

[fredclown]

I know that GoDaddy is not very popular right now in the tech community, but the have formally and officially withdrawn support for SOPA. If the purpose of this extension is to make people aware of the issue and give them the opportunity to contact sites that support SOPA, then when those sites do the right thing and stop supporting it they should be removed from the list. Keeping them in the list because of a grudge (as per the comments in issue #7) isn't very fair because you are actively telling people that they support it when in fact they do not.

[justmoon]

+1

What is up with this? If you don't stop the boycott against GoDaddy, then you are basically ruining any future boycott from having any effect. As a business, if changing your policy doesn't make a bit of difference to the people boycotting you, then why change your policy?!

By making the Anti-SOPA community look like backstabbing SOBs you are severely hurting our chances to get other groups and companies to reverse their stance and come out against SOPA. "Look what happened to GoDaddy, if we reject SOPA it won't make a bit of difference."

[webster]

There were indeed some companies that were included due to indirect support of SOPA. Apple, for example, was a member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which initially supported SOPA. Apple never made a statement on it. I believe Apple in this instance should not have been included on the list (they were only because an online source indicated they were a SOPA supporter), and they have been removed.

In the BSA's case, they released a couple statements about SOPA, one on October 26 stating "[the] Business Software Alliance today commended House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) for introducing the 'Stop Online Piracy Act,'" and later in the same statement saying "As Congress continues its work on this legislation, it will be important to strike the right balance between two sets of considerations — enabling effective action against online pirates, while also ensuring the law does not impede technology innovation or the evolution of software and the Internet, which are critical engines for future economic growth." They released another statement on November 21 stating "Valid and important questions have been raised about the bill. It is intended to get at the worst of the worst offenders. As it now stands, however, it could sweep in more than just truly egregious actors. To fix this problem, definitions of who can be the subject of legal actions and what remedies are imposed must be tightened and narrowed."

The BSA actively showed that they were thinking and listening to the issues. While I wish they vehemently opposed SOPA (and PIPA) from the beginning, it's important to acknowledge that one of the BSA's core businesses is anti-piracy and licensing compliance. Knowing that, I think it's amazing that they even hint at SOPA needing work.

GoDaddy, on the other hand, took a very long time to cave to public pressure. And in the middle of that public pressure, GoDaddy wrote: “Go Daddy has always supported both government and private industry efforts to identify and disable all types of illegal activity on the Internet. It is for these reasons that I’m still struggling with why some Internet companies oppose PROTECT IP and SOPA. There is no question that we need these added tools to counteract illegal foreign sites that are falling outside the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement. And there is clearly more that we could all be doing to adequately address the problems that exist.”

If GoDaddy has indeed "...always supported...efforts to identify and disable all types of illegal activity..." blindly, how can the company switch sides so rapidly? GoDaddy was "struggling" to figure out why companies wouldn't support PIPA and SOPA. That's quite a statement.

Like the situation with the BSA, it's also important to acknowledge GoDaddy's business: domain registration, DNS, web hosting, and other things that make the internet run. GoDaddy is not in the business of lobbying for rights holders, in fact, it should be subject to the stipulations in the SOPA legislation — but it wasn't. There was significant media coverage on how GoDaddy was exempt from the legislation it originally contributed to.

GoDaddy has, in my opinion, an awful track record when it comes to protecting the rights and interests of the public. A quick check at the 'Controversies' section on the GoDaddy Wikipedia page has stories of site suspensions and deletions. Unrelated to SOPA and PIPA, GoDaddy's use of near-naked women in advertising is disgusting and a strong display of misogyny. And don't get me started about elephant killing and the GoDaddy Political Action Committee.

I believe the nature of GoDaddy's business, their original unreserved statements of support and their long and very-negative track record all strongly indicates that the withdrawal of their support of SOPA is nothing more than a public relations tactic; a bandage to stop a wound of bad publicity and a serious loss of business.

GoDaddy will remain on the list.

[justmoon]

There was significant media coverage on how GoDaddy was exempt from the legislation it originally contributed to.

This is nonsense. Sub-domains were exempt and GoDaddy hosts sub-domains, but this only constitutes a tiny part of their business.

GoDaddy has, in my opinion, an awful track record when it comes to protecting the rights and interests of the public.

Fair enough. In that case you should however change the description for the extension in the Chrome Web Store. It currently reads:

Be notified if you're visiting the website of a company that supports the dangerous Stop Online Piracy Act legislation.

If the extension also displays the warning for companies that do not currently support SOPA, but are considered evil due to unrelated issues, then this should be disclosed to potential users. Google also requires extension descriptions in the Web Store to be accurate, so if you don't feel a need to remedy this, they may.

You're entitled to your opinion, but as you are indirectly supporting SOPA by undermining the credibility of the anti-SOPA movement, I'll do my best to limit the amount of harm you're able to do. It's one thing to boycott a company, it's another to trick your users into boycotting one under false pretenses.

[webster]

GoDaddy supports SOPA; the Internet agrees.

I'm not calling for a boycott of GoDaddy or anyone else. It's up to the user to decide what they want to do.

Thanks for your input.

[fredclown]

GoDaddy supports SOPA; the Internet agrees.

The internet is nothing more that a bunch of wires and switches networked together. I has no sentience so it cannot agree. People however can agree, and since Go Daddy has reversed their stance many people are happy with their decision. I agree Go Daddy is a sleazy company, but your extension says they are supporting it ... they are not.

[justmoon]

@fredclown I agree with you, but I don't think this is a rational argument that can be won. When people are on a witch hunt, reason goes out the window and the best thing you can do is to lock your doors. :)

Plus, it's @webster's extension, so his choice should be respected.

[fredclown]

Except that he has open sourced it ... so it is in many respects the communities.

[justmoon]

Whatever, I'll stay out of this one.