Red Hot on Reddit.com: “Move Your Domain Away From Godaddy Day” Based Off Of Support Of SOPA

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A red hot story on Reddit.com this morning started by one domain holder has already gotten over 1,500 comments.

The post that started it all is only a little over 3 hours old on Reddit.com and is entitled:

“GoDaddy supports SOPA, I’m transferring 51 domains & suggesting a move your domain day”

The poster goes on to say:

“”I just finished writing GoDaddy a letter stating why I’m moving my small businesses 51 domains away from them, as well as my personal domains. I also pointed out that i transferred over 300 domains to them as a director of IT for a major American company.

I’m suggesting Dec 29th as move your domain away from GoDaddy day because of their support of SOPA. Who’s with me?

“Go Daddy has a long history of supporting federal legislation directed toward combating illegal conduct on the Internet. For example, our company strongly supported the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, the Protect Our Children Act of 2008, and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (PROTECT IP). 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.”https://www.thedomains.com/2011/11/15/here-is-godaddys-statement-in-support-of-the-stop-online-privacy-act-house-hearing-tomorrow/

Name Cheap messaged me with a special discount code for reddit users: BYEBYEGD I’m not taking any positions i’m just reporting it. I asked him to give reddit users a better deal.””

Besides lighting up Reddit.com servers, our servers have seen over 12,000 visits  from the story already in just the 3 hours since the post went up. (make that 16K visits in 4 hours).

Godaddy.com support of SOPA is quite puzzling as under the bill Godaddy, like any domain name registrar could potentially have huge liability under the Bill as pointed out by Phil Corwin of the Internet Commerce Association

“”ICA believes that SOPA, as introduced, creates the strong possibility that trademark rights holders will seek to have payment and ad services terminated to registrars and other domain name intermediaries based upon the allegation that they are facilitating the use of domains that constitute “counterfeit marks” in and of themselves, without reference to actual use or available defenses. This potential shifting of “cybersquatting” responsibility from registrants to registrars and other domain name intermediaries, as well as the failure to incorporate the more comprehensive and nuanced analysis of the ACPA and UDRP, appears unjustified and unwise – and could lead to the shutdown of these domain name intermediaries and the associated termination of critical domain-related services to millions of registrants engaged in non-infringing uses of their websites. “”

It will be interesting to see if this story has any legs and whether the “Move Your Domain Away From Godaddy Day” suggested by the poster picks up steam.

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. Chuck Reynolds says

    I’m glad it finally is getting out to more people about how shit that company is. I moved a lot of domains away from them years ago to enom and namecheap and today I praise namecheap a lot…
    Anyways… get off of GoDaddy and spread this message… Thx for the information as well about them and SOPA… although it really doesn’t surprise me.

  3. Dan says

    Hi,

    “It will be interesting to see if this story has any legs and whether the “Move Your Domain Away From Godaddy Day” suggested by the poster picks up steam.”

    —

    I hope so…I ‘commented’ here more than once about this and on my blog weeks ago.

    It made/makes no sense at all for them to support these bills…beacuse the reasons they give in their nice ‘statement’ in support of these bills, are pure fiction, to say the least.

    So, there is a very hidden agenda or they are is ignorant about these bills as a lot people in congress…I would like which or if its a combination of both.

    Old ‘Bob’ is so proud of his Super Bowl ads every year…

    It would be great to have a ‘Anti-SOPA/ProtectIP/GoDaddy ad for the big game…I am sure we could find a nice “SOPA girl” 😉

    It would get higher ratings than GoDaddys ad…if done right.

    I guess that ‘pesky’ 3m+ for an ad…puts this idea into the ‘fiction idea heap’…but one can always dream. 😉

    Peace!
    ‘D’

  4. Louise says

    @ Dan said: “So, there is a very hidden agenda.”

    Christine Jones testified about Google’s role in promoting counterfeit:

    “But there was one thing that Jones and Walker agreed on: to cut off the money flow to infringing sites. Payment processors, advertising networks and even shipping companies like FedEx all have a responsibility to stop doing business with these sites, they said.

    “As a caveat, Jones said lawmakers have to give domain name registrars, search engines and payment processors legal cover in future legislation so they don’t face lawsuits for cutting off transactions with infringing sites.”
    – politico.com/news/stories/0411/52687_Page2.html#ixzz1hII2KA00

    Jones is angling for liability protection for Godaddy, for cutting off sites. GD cuts off sites anyway, in the case where it’s a valuable domain, and they want to hold it hostage for $200.00 reinstatement fee. Many examples on Nodaddy, of which there are a handful of headlines indexed in Google, if you go here: google.com/search?q=site:nodaddy.com

    because Godaddy bought the domain name, Nodaddy, when it was in talks with Silverlake for purchase. Nodaddy was ranking page 1 on search of “godaddy.”

  5. Jeff Schneider says

    Hello Michael,

    We are not Go-Duddy fans, they only have had their backs protected at domainers expense as long as we can remember. Personally we prefer Moniker Maxilock track record along with long standing Domainer support over the years.

    P.S. we support draining Godaddy inventories,they do not deserve good domains that need to be supported and protected !

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  7. Hmmmm says

    Alas, the elephant is GoDaddy.

    The number of domains they have parked is enormous.
    It easily rivals any of the largest “domainers”.

    Have GoDaddy’s customers all parked these domains intentionally? If the customer does not point their domain name at the IP address of an existing website, does GoDaddy park it by default and take a cut of any revenue?

    Hmmmm.

    Has GoDaddy seized them from it customers for its own benefit after they expired? Do they hide ownership of these via a shell corporation?

    Hmmmm.

    A sizeable number of these parked domains are cybersquatted.

    Would the cybersquatting critics would find many, many cases of trademark infringement, if they were to look?

    Hmmmm.

  10. SL says

    I hope they don’t listen. Unlike the elephant debacle, this one has teeth and can lead to real change. Hear me out.

    Time after time we’ve seen the exact same scenario when one company gains an overwhelming market position. Once the tipping point is reached all sorts of unforeseen bad things magically start to happen. Microsoft in OSs, Google in search and numerous other examples going back to the robber barons.

    GD is right on the verge of gaining that foothold. At this point even a 5% shift to other registrars is a step in the right direction.

    The bottom line is they’re waving a “think of the children” flag and hoping that enough dolts believe it. Like what the Republicans tried to do with their disinformation campaign about net neutrality. All to promote their hidden agenda in an effort to grow share/profits at any cost.

    SOPA is only about preserving the business model of dying industry (MPAA, RIAA) while wreaking collateral damage on the rest of our livelihoods.

    Screw Godaddy.

  11. Louise says

    You’re in trouble, @ MHB! You’re the one who broke the story to the mainstream! Good going! 😀

  12. Carlos Martins says

    I am moving from Godaddy during last months not because of support of SOPA but due its domain orientations (prices too high and other things). We had more than one hundred when i started to buy domain and register them and now just have 30 and some more.

    Their discount codes mostly do not work due the restrictions they have. Other registrar do not give discount codes but their prices are lower.

  13. Dan says

    Hi,

    Namecheap is almost as bad as “Godaddy” for maybe a ‘sincere’ but blatantly disingenuous Anti-SOPA position today.

    They are obviously coming out with this now, solely because of this Go Daddy backlash.

    Where have then been for the last 6-10 months?

    I did not see their name the full page ad on Nov 15th in the NYT etc…

    No “Anti- SOPA” stance at all until this Godaddy %$$ hit the fan.

    http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/22/we-say-no-to-sopa/

    And its not that much of a ‘Anti-SOPA’ stance at that, as they they give a ‘qualified’ answer.

    __

    Also:

    In the “CEO’s quote”…

    “SOPA is like detonating a nuclear bomb on the internet when only a surgical strike is necessary. This legislation has the potential to harm the way everyone uses the Internet and to undermine the system itself.”

    Most of the quote above was made almost verbatim by someone else, I think a Senator or Congressmen, weeks or months ago.

    I would pull my names from them to.

    Peace!
    ‘D’

  14. Overpriced says

    Dumb! What a fool. People try to portray domains as if they are all that matter in this world. Domainers refuse to see that GoDaddy is the best. Another loser starting a worthless Reddit.com discussion.

  16. Dan says

    Hi,

    At least they let me speak my peace, I just posted this in the comments section and the ‘mod’ posted it.

    ____

    Quote:

    Hi,

    “Since the news broke today” ?

    Godaddys statement was made public on NOV 15th 2011.

    Where have you been the last 3-6 months on this?

    IMO…you are blatantly disingenuous with your ‘johnny come lately’ post today, only trying to take a business advantage over the public backlash of Godady’s position on this.

    Pure and Simple ~ with all due respect.

    Peace!
    ‘D’

    End Quote

  18. Dan says

    @ Louise

    They have the same problem as most all domain registrars…totally disengaged from the conversation for the last 6 months plus…when their ‘engagement’ on this issue(s) could have made a big difference.

    But, now that voting on these bills has been postponed until at least mid-January…they can really step up to the plate and engage.

    Lest hope they do…

    Reportedly, Harry Reid is coming back with the “Protect IP Act” as his top priority in the Senate…as soon as they get back in session.

    Still many battles to be fought and won…soon.

    __

    On Another Note:

    Just for you Louise…

    I tried sending it to an email address you left on one of your comments on my blog…but it would not go through.

    Thought you may find this interesting on: “QR”

    http://paths.ioninteractive.com/qrguide

    Merry Christmas To All!

    ‘D’