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402 pointsjwildeboer70 comments

Maybe Google can rethink their selection and make a change? It is strange to oppose SOPA on the one hand and use the services of one of its proponents at the same time. #justsayin

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Is it just me or has the focus shifting from SOPA to GoDaddy (reddit too has the same trend). I'm as anti-GoDaddy as the next person but let's remember that calling your representative will help the cause more than punishing a domain registrar. Maybe if you run a popular website then informing your site visitors about the evil of the bill (like tumblr) can do much more to help the cause than moving your domain name to namecheap.

I'm as anti-GoDaddy as the next person but let's remember that calling your representative will help the cause more than punishing a domain registrar.

Are you sure about that?

Bingo. If you take out GoDaddy and a few others who either are or have potential to donate funds to election campaigns, those representatives will pay attention real quick. Much more effective than sending letters or calling.

IMO, do both, and mention that fact in your letter. "I will continue to boycott businesses that donate to your campaign because of your support for this legislation."

There's not enough of us to take out GoDaddy. I really can't be optimistic about this. But in all honesty I get the whole boycott as a way to raise awareness and support that but there seems to be an underlying theme to some people's comments of wanting to put GoDaddy completely out of business. I think that's just immature. GoDaddy may be wrong on this issue but they're free to take whatever stand they want and really they aren't the problem here. The real problem is this legislation. If SOPA passes then we're fucked and we'll look back and realize that focusing so much on GoDaddy didn't really matter. GoDaddy supporting it or not, if this passes its bad either way so let's be aware of this stuff but stop focusing so much on all the minutia

There's not enough of us to take out GoDaddy.

Sure there are.

http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/release-view.aspx?news_ite...

> GoDaddy may be wrong on this issue but they're free to take whatever stand they want ...

Just as free as the people who think they should lose business for it, in shifting to a more social responsible company.

They are trying to enact broken and biased laws. Why shouldn't they go out of business?

No, they aren't the issue, but it's not like it takes energy or money away from fighting SOPA. And it adds ammunition to the anti-SOPA camp by establishing the instantaneous and painful consequences of speaking out against the 99%.

We shouldn't underestimate the message we're sending by outcasting GD. As we've already seen, other businesses in the domain/hosting world have already taken notice and adopted an anti-SOPA stance. If the backlash against GD is great enough, it's a pretty clear warning to every other company out there - if you support SOPA, be prepared to face the consequences.

You have a valid point. Remember: the main supporters of SOPA are the Hollywood bigwigs who want to preserve a flawed business model at any cost. GoDaddy is just side show.

Has anyone created a list of representatives and whether they support SOPA or not?

I've been seeing a list of companies that support SOPA posted on Facebook lately, but I think a list of reps would be a lot more useful.

Why can't we do both?

Another key thing is that this is a bill being pushed through with corporate support. We're not going the change the minds of Big Media, but we can -- and have -- change the minds of companies that are supporting it for reasons periphery to their core businesses.

Don't forget the millions that Godaddy invests in their lobbying activities each year. They had a hand in drafting SOPA, testify before congress etc. They are active in helping promote this type of legislation and haven't agreed to stop this political axe-grinding - they've just suspended judgement until a more final product with broader support has been forged. We haven't seen the end of this one.

"benhuh @mattcutts indeed... now, ask Google to pressure GD. GD is Google's third-party registrar."

"mattcutts @benhuh I think we use eNom too. But safe to assume people has passed this feedback on."

http://twitter.com/#!/mattcutts/status/149988873726984192

They do use eNom as well, that's the one I chose when setting up my account.

Let's not pollute this place with hashtags.

No kidding. Hash tags need to die, this isn't twitter, and I don't come here for 100-character-long spam bursts of groupthink and newspeak.

Chill. I have no problem with hashtags, and I don't think it's spam. I'm totally okay with it, and I have as much say as you do.

Maybe if it actually did something...

You and all the people hating on hashtags are busy engaging in your own groupthink. How about you focus more on the content and less on the presentation?

What content did the #justsayin hashtag add to the topic?

The content is the link and the discussing of Google using GoDaddy. The presentation is the fact there's a hashtag in the title and everyone with their underwear in a twist over a # sign.

Hashtags don't work here. It would be different if he said "Just saying..." instead of using a tag from a social network. Also, how does it leave "everyone with their underwear in a twist"?

When it comes to SOPA there seems to be a ton of groupthink going on. I feel like people are missing a lot of the nuances and oversimplifying every new story that comes out about it.

Edit: Really? Are we just on a downvoting spree today? That button isn't there to silence opinions you don't like and I'm getting really sick of seeing that happen around here. There are trolls and off topic comments that are safe to push down and ignore but there's people who don't have the same thoughts as you which are a different story. This really is becoming a big circle jerk/pat-each-other-on-the-back-for-being-so-smart club.

$ echo "No kidding. Hash tags need to die, this isn't twitter, and I don't come here for 100-character-long spam bursts of groupthink and newspeak." | wc -c

> 140

Not sure if that was meant to be ironic...

He said 100 and it was 140, so no. Not ironic.

Yes. Instead, let's make the top comment on the top post on the site a pointless flamewar about a single word in the title instead of the content of the post. Your idea is much better, thank you.

In a recent SOPA-like proceeding, a judge ordered GoDaddy to facilitate the seizure.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111129/20471916928/court-...

Personally, I am amazed that anyone stayed with GoDaddy after the Seclists.org debacle. I switched to Gandi at that point and I have been really happy with them so far.

Seclists.org debacle? Link?

http://seclists.org/nmap-hackers/2007/0

First hit for "seclists godaddy" on Google for me...

Oh my god, reading that made me envision SOPA passing.

Where a company, like MySpace, deems that one page on a large well respected website, like seclists.org, aggravates them -- they can just dns block it and it is no longer accessible.

Holy..

It cuts both ways. What if someone with nothing to lose found some way to take out sony.com or whatever? I hope that will never be possible, and I bet anyone trying that would end up in jail, but you never know.

What I don't get about it - what does GoDaddy realistically have to gain from supporting SOPA?

Maybe they hope they will become default registrar for all the other proponents? Quite some big names on that list.

Those big names don't make the internet, we do. They might be what 10^-googol% of the internet.

They have been handling domain seizure orders:

http://www.techspot.com/news/46481-judge-oks-private-domain-...

    an injunction against the top-level domain name registry, directing it to change the registrar of record for the domain names to GoDaddy (!);
    an injunction telling GoDaddy to change the DNS data for the domain names so the domain names resolve to a site where a copy of the case documents are hosted (servingnotice.com/sdv/index.html);

When you get to the top, you want to stay at the top. The problem is that on the way to the top, you became big. Real big.

Big companies can't maneuver well. An elephant can't do acrobatics. They know they can't compete head-to-head with smaller companies.

So big companies start to create artificial barriers to entry. They form partnerships (i.e. Google), they begin to advertise heavily (i.e. Superbowl), and they start to lobby the government (i.e. SOPA). All of these actions are there to create lasting relationships that will help a large company like GoDaddy compete with smaller, more maneuverable firms.

GoDaddy couldn't give a damn about SOPA. They simply want to have a solid relationship with various members of congress, the senate, and parts of the executive branch. I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine down the road.

Also, although I don't believe this is a significant motivating factor, SOPA would reduce legal costs for GoDaddy. Currently, if there's a court order for a seizure or something along those lines, it has to go through a process in legal. One of the features of SOPA, is that it would take the process out of the courts, at least initially. No courts = no court orders to process.

This whole thing is like the plot of a bad movie (based on an Ayn Rand novel, no less).

SOPA gives all siezed domains to godaddy. It is corporate welfare for them.

Maybe they are planning to make money by charging fees to the government when they have to make changes to a domain name due to a SOPA action? Does the bill require companies like GoDaddy to do this for free?

Because it sounds good to support anti-piracy -- especially when they are the ones who often host sites supporting piracy. At least, I'm assuming this is their rationale.

One guess: If Congress thinks GoDaddy is the sort of company that will help them manage all this unruly internet stuff, then that's the sort of company Congress wants around.

Congressmen live and die by response to constituent concerns. If the folks get worked up about cyber-bullying or unsafe skateboard videos or kitten porn or whatever depredations those Internet freaks invent next, Congressmen want some avenue to Do Something. GoDaddy may get little from SOPA, but they could get a lot offering to help manage all of this . . .

I don't think Google will be changing their business dealings with Godaddy anytime soon. Google has a business relationship with KKR (the new owners of GoDaddy). They are investing 94 million on a KKR solar farm project. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/google-kkr-invest...

Given the number of Google people who regularly read HN, I suspect this is already in the process of being fixed.

Yeah, Google has been showing a lot of action against SOPA.

I suppose changing a registration partner won't be as easy as transferring a bunch of domains, though.

It would probably take the larger part of 7 days. Any registrar worth their salt will have an EPP interface. The only thing that will take a while to set up is the payment / bank accounts.

Assuming they didn't sign a contract?

Fixed? You know, I get the whole backlash against GoDaddy and it's totally justified but these posts that basically demand all businesses switch registrars or imply that any company using GoDaddy as their registrar are somehow sympathetic to them is nuts to me. I know they don't outright say it but that's the subtext I'm getting.

I hope everyone boycotts GoDaddy and transfers to another provider but we have to understand that something like this may not be feasible for some companies right now. Google may have a long term deal they have to finish out. In addition transferring the thousands of domains they have costs money for not just the transfers but they also have to get people to work on it and provide customer support as there will be many people who will need to know why this is happening and how they'll be affected.

GoDaddy has sucked even before they came out in support of SOPA, there's no doubt about that and the transfer/boycott movement is justified but let's please not put the entire focus on GD and remember the situations some companies are in can make it harder to transfer their domains. Also, using GoDaddy != support for SOPA just as using a gas powered car doesn't automatically make you a global warming denier. Circumstances just don't always allow for people to be idealists.

Google really ought to distance itself from GoDaddy. It reflects poorly on them, and I'm quite sure that Google has enough leverage to do whatever it likes in this case.

Why did Google ever do a deal with GoDaddy in the first place? Godaddy's UI alone should have been reason enough not to.

Should they really distance themselves? I'm not taking a stance but posing the question. The thing is, sometimes your business partners do something you don't agree with. Google will have to decide whether GoDaddy's support for SOPA is enough to sever a long standing business relationship.

It's easy to say Google should stop doing business with them when we're talking about an issue that rouses such passionate opinions but we have to think about a few things first:

First, who are we to know what's best for Google? If we're so smart why aren't we all running billion dollar companies? Secondly, if companies went about changing their businesses just to suit a noisy minority there'd be problems. As it stands it seems like the people making the biggest deal about this is our small developer community. Granted there are a lot of powerful people on our side but when you take the big picture into account we're just a noisy minority.

So yeah, I would like them to distance themselves from GoDaddy like everyone else but should they? I also don't think leverage has any part in this. Google is already a registrar but there must be some good reason they use those 3rd parties. I don't think people are giving them enough credit here. They're looking at this one small detail of how Google does business and making broad, sweeping judgements.

You know, I kind of expect Google to ditch GoDaddy. Because it is the right thing to do. And Google is usually about doing the right thing.

(Disclosure: I used to work for Google. I don't now so I have no reason to sing their praise, but Google have always been a few notches above the competition when it comes to trying hard to do the ethical thing)

Google must be very, very careful about throwing its weight around. They want to avoid drawing attention to their importance, or suggesting that they'd use it to impose their opinions.

I long ago got rid of my directly registered GoDaddy domains, but the Google Apps registered ones... can you switch to eNom?

New domains I get through name.com and they offer you the option to set up Google Apps for your domain.

Is there any reason for Google not to become a registrar themselves?

Hassle? What's the benefit to them?

I could think of a few reasons out of the massive number of reasons why. For starters, its another service that ties user to the brand. While it probably won't be a huge money maker for them, there are tiny things that may be worth doing to help them leverage growth and not to mention more analytics.

Here is one reason why they will not:

Larry Page is trying to focus the company, not make it do everything under the sun.

See: Almost every extraneous service being cut.

I agree but arguably, you could say one of the focus is the cloud. Building an AWS competitor isn't necessary something they wouldn't consider in the future. They do have a DNS service, and they already do 3rd party registrations with Google App integrations for various things. None of those have been on the cut list. And I'm sure they have plans to continue pushing things forward for cloud services. Being a registrar and having services integrated with each other (see AWS) is an added benefit. I could be wrong and this is purely random thoughts out loud, but not everything should be viewed so narrowly or direct that you miss the big picture on where the focus is at and how you get there. It's still a possibility and none of us knows what Google has planned.

They wouldn't gain any new analytics. As a registrar, Google already has access to the root zone files, they can see what domains are being registered/dropped at every registrar. They already run public DNS servers too, so they don't need to get people to register domains with them and use them for DNS to see DNS activity.

Much better integration with Google Apps for your domain if you wanted it?

Technically it is, since 2005: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2005/01/31/google_is_now_a...

[Update - Yep still on the list http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html]

There was speculation at the time it was done to get hold of domain registration data, which could be used by search algorithms.

It's also the default registrar for SSL certificates on Windows Server 2011. :/

I was going to switch to Google Chrome. Just changed my mind. Please try not to do business with companies that support SOPA and their affiliates.

deleted my G+ account. Will not be buying another Android phone.

Really, you're not going to wait a few weeks and see if Google fixes things?

What if they don't "fix" things? Is it then okay to go ahead and boycott Google? I would say no. I would still say even if they did nothing about this that dropping all Google support would still be throwing the baby out with the bath water. I'd honestly be happy if they put out a simple statement explaining why they're going to sever ties or continue doing business with GoDaddy and just honestly explain why. As a business owner I know that you can't really control some of the people you do business with and you really need to pick your battles. Google dropping GoDaddy because they hold an unpopular opinion, however wrong it is, would actually look sort of bad for Google. The guys who are fighting censorship (Google) just severed ties with a business partner because they have a differing opinion actually seems a bit like censorship itself. "If you don't agree with me then I'm going to punish you" is what that sounds like. In any case, its unfortunate that Google ended up doing business with them but Google couldn't possibly know this would happen when they first partnered with them and severing ties now just feels wrong to me.

Why do you love GoDaddy? You're in an absolute tither about people exercising their right to deal with a merchant of their choice.

As for your argument about censoring the censors, it's daft.

I think you threw the baby out with the bath water there. You've started boycotting Google, who's one of the most vocal opponents to SOPA, because one of the default options they give for domain registration for Google Apps accounts is GoDaddy, who supports SOPA.

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