Go Daddy General Counsel Christine Jones testified before Members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, today about illegitimate pharmacies on the Internet.
Today, House Members introduced a bipartisan bill to stop pharmacies operating on the Internet enttled ‘The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008.
It passed the U.S. Senate without any opposition and now awaits action in the House.
Go Daddy‘s top lawyer and Corporate Secretary explained that its was easy it is for children to order illegal drugs over the Internet. “This isn‘t just about people trying to save money on prescription drugs by unknowingly buying counterfeit brand name pills, this is about young kids who use their parents‘ credit card, tell them they are buying music or video games and instead stock the weekly party with enough ecstasy for them and all their friends. This is very, very serious.“
According to Go Daddy‘s they suspended more than 1,300 different Web sites where drugs were available for purchase, mostly without a prescription and almost always without any age verification or parental oversight required.
“For 2008, the trends are much more severe,“ Jones testified. “Go Daddy has suspended more than six thousand online pharmacy domain names already this year“.
I for one had no knowledge that Godaddy was taking sites down due to “illegal Prescription Sales” or for any other reason.
We have, along with other domainers, called Godaddy out for allowing domain auctions of domains which clearly viloate the trademarkes of well know brand domains.
However we have never received a response or seen any change in policy.
Now we find out that Godaddy is busy taking down thousands of sites.
Here’s the problem I have.
The law is being voted on now.
Last year they took down 1,300 sites this year 6,000 sites.
On what basis??
If these sites are already against the law, why do they need the new law??
If these site were not against the law, then why did Godaddy take them down?
Were the sites against Godaddy’s policy?
and if so what other policies do they have that could allow them to take down other type of sites?
Finally if Godaddy want to be so god like as to determine what sites to take down in the name of the public good, why do they still allow the trademark domains to be auctioned off in their system?
Is the high ground dependent on profit?
I think they call it moral relativism, Michael.
It’s very scary that a registrar can take it upon itself to enforce a non-existent law against a large number of sites, while letting more obvious but possibly more profitable infractions go.
The statement regarding the sale of ecstasy seems to be one made to inflame congress into passing yet another law.
The sale of ecstasy is already clearly illegal whether done in person or on the internet.
I have gotten thousands of e-mails advertising prescription drugs for sale on the net.
However I have never seen or even heard of ecstasy for sale. Is the Counsel for Godaddy saying that these 7,000 sites sold Ecstasy??
Please tell me where you can buy ecstasy online?
More important, where can I sign up for the affiliate program?
@Michael
Great post, thank you for bringing this to our attention.
@Owen
Good point, where is that site, the same place you can buy speed and weed too? I am sure someone will say there is one site or forum out there that you can get this stuff with the right secret handshake, and reference from your friend Timmy, but are the kids really at risk to one-offs like this?
– Richard
I wouldn’t be too worried about GoDaddy’s support of this, as I think they’re just trying to CYA. I wrote about this issue a while back (in regards to GoDaddy spending money lobbying pharmacy issues) and surmised:
“I suspect the company was lobbying to make sure there weren’t provisions in the bill that forced domain registrars to take specific actions without a valid complaint. Registars want to be allowed to respond to requests without facing liability, but also don’t want the burden to be placed on them to police registrations — and for good reason.”
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/04/03/why-godaddy-spent-lobbying-money-on-pharmacy-issues/
Great post – It’s very scary that a registrar can take it upon itself to enforce a non-existent law against a large number of sites, while letting more obvious but possibly more profitable infractions go.
Damir
Exactly
And which type of sites is next on the list?
Maybe one of your’s or mine
Example of whats next! AARP is going to ICANN to try and get one of my domains AARPDISCOUNTS.com and GoDaddy took the domain out of the control panel before I could sign it over to them or sell or whatever..ALL of this before I was noticed from AARP lawyers. They did however keep the forward and DNS pointing to my website