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Comment by nobody9999 | Hacker News Reader

>So leave that type of warfare to the warring governments. We don't need fractured delivery of every service in accordance with every service provider's politics in relation to current events

Why shouldn't Namecheap (or me or anyone else) take a position on the current situation?

This is going to hurt Namecheap. Almost certainly more than it will hurt the Russian government, and likely more than it will hurt Namecheap's Russian customers.

This appears to be Namecheap standing up for their employees (~1700 in Ukraine, IIUC) and taking a moral/ethical stand against the violence, destruction and murder going on right now in Ukraine.

Regardless of which side (or none, for that matter) of this you support, why shouldn't Namecheap (or anyone else) express their position and take action in support of that position?

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Take a position, fine. Talk about it, have a big block on top of every page letting everyone know how you feel, donate, etc., I have no problem with any of these.

I also think it's for acceptable for them to choose not to renew someone's agreement based on some political stance (obnoxious but within their rights). But if we signed a contract and I paid you to register my domain name or host my e-mail, you can't just take it away from me mid-contract because you're upset about something that somebody else did. There are people downstream from me that rely on that domain or that e-mail hosting service, it's not up to you to take that away from them because you're tangentially involved in one hop.

> This is going to hurt Namecheap.

Lost me as a customer.

>Take a position, fine. Talk about it, have a big block on top of every page letting everyone know how you feel, donate, etc., I have no problem with any of these.

Absolutely. And Namecheap has done so and more. And so have you. Good for you. And good for Namecheap.

I frequently disagree with decisions my local, state and national governments, as well as corporations make. And I speak up about it too.

I withhold my money/business from corporations with whose decisions I disagree. And I vote for the folks who support the policies I support too.

I suspect that you do the same. And as I said, good for you!

Why shouldn't Namecheap have the same opportunity?

They should, that was literally the gist of my reply. But they shouldn't take away a service that has already been paid for, the disappearance of which has critical ramifications for the customer, in the midst of providing the service that they agreed to provide and already got paid for.

Are you suggesting people just be able to walk away from contracts whenever they'd like to, as long as they give lip service to a principled position as an explanation?

>Are you suggesting people just be able to walk away from contracts whenever they'd like to, as long as they give lip service to a principled position as an explanation?

Nope. Nor am I suggesting that claims for breach of contract should be ignored by the courts.

Should Namecheap issue refunds to customers they are cancelling? Probably. Will they do so? I have no idea.

We're all responsible for our own actions. Whether or not those actions result in positive or negative outcomes.

I imagine that some (former) customers will file lawsuits. They might even win.

As I said in my initial comment[0]:

   This is going to hurt Namecheap. Almost certainly 
   more than it will hurt the Russian government, 
   and likely more than it will hurt Namecheap's 
   Russian customers.

Namecheap has taken a course of action that, at a minimum, shows strong support for their employees, with significant financial (both lost revenue and lawsuits) risk to the company.

Whether that's right or wrong, that's how Namecheap has decided to proceed. As I said, this is going to hurt Namecheap financially.

Whether or not their actions are effective in reining in Russia's aggression is an open question (although it will likely have no effect). That said, Namecheap doing what they think is the right thing.

And Namecheap will be held responsible (in a variety of ways) for those decisions.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30507460

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