Here is Godaddy’s statement in support of SOPA

[malandrew]

Godaddy, with all its built up infrastructure around policing the domains registered with them, has a major financial self-interest in supporting this bill. While it may or may not increase costs for GoDaddy given all the stuff their already do, SOPA would reduce competition and increase the barriers to entry. I'm sure GoDaddy sees SOPA as a way to further consolidate market share.

[rubinelli]

I've heard horror stories from webmasters that got their domains taken by GoDaddy after baseless IP-related accusations and forced to pay hundreds of dollars to get them back, so they not only have the infrastructure in place, they seem to be making a tidy profit off it.

[brndnhy]

As a high school student in 1988, I interviewed with Bob's previous company, Parsons Technology, for an after-school customer support position.

At that time Parsons Technology was known primarily as the publisher of a personal finance program called MoneyCounts, but they also released a formidable catalog of Bible-related software.

Much to my dismay, the interview process was heavily skewed toward determining how much of a believer I was and ran into all manner of private territory.

I did briefly meet Bob -- just a handshake and he was gone.

Very little of my computer experience was discussed and by the end of the rushed interview I was given complimentary copies of Parsons Technology Bible-related software.

I drove away from that interview disappointed and tricked.

Obviously you can't jump to conclusions from anecdotal data, but I wanted to share this experience and my personal opinion that Bob Parsons is an intensely self-righteous and dogmatic fellow.

Anyway, from my early experience with his first company, to his bizarre and narcissistic elephant hunt, GoDaddy's obnoxious objectification of women, and now SOPA... I've always felt the guy is just sort of twisted and unsavory.

One man's view only.

[mwsherman]

Can someone cite a source either on the GoDaddy site or a .gov site? I don’t doubt it personally, but I’d like to see an official source for the statement. This being the Internet and all.

[samstave]

http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rouge%20Websites/SOPA%20Su...

[maeon3]

http://support.godaddy.com/groups/go-daddy-customers/forum/t...

[JamisonM]

I wonder if GoDaddy supports this because it gives them a clearer legal framework for dealing with complaints of piracy problems on domains they have under management. If I were them I would be concerned about my legal responsibilities to the parties whose domains I manage and to the complainants and would want specific legislation that can allow my business to address complaints in a standardized manner that is unlikely to make me look worse than the other guy down the block.

If this is the case then as a business they pretty much have to support it -- it would be their obligation to shareholders to do so.

[lallysingh]

Sorry I just don't get this. They're about as responsible as Verizon is for listings of "Escort Services" in the yellow pages.

[ryan_s]

From the post: "protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line"

Seriously? I dont need someone to protect me online. It's. It the Wild West. Who will protect me from the crap they sell on late night TV? Maybe we should put a stop to infomercials next.

I thought the supporters of this were supposed to be anti "big government". Seems like this bill is just imposing more government regulations.

[mindcrime]

Well, looks like I'll be moving all of my domains to a different registrar. Anybody have any suggestions for a good one?

[stephen_g]

I've used Namecheap for a couple a while back, and had no problems. Their online interface is quite nice and a lot better than GoDaddy's. I recently heard of some people saying their customer support isn't very good though, so that may be something to look out for.

[mitchellhislop]

Namecheap currently has a deal running just for this: http://twitter.com/#!/Namecheap/status/149919610253213697

[untog]

I use gandi.net - I've found the prices to be great. They're also based in France, which means they won't be victim to any of this SOPA idiocy (until the EU passes something similar, I suppose).

[corford]

I use www.dyn.com for all my domain and dns stuff and would recommend them in a heart beat.

Note: they're not the cheapest though if that's something important to you.

[RexM]

I just moved 5 domains to namecheap from godaddy. I used coupon code SWITCH2NC to get $1 off each domain I was transferring.

[grsites]

I've heard many people mention namecheap and dreamhost as good alternate registrars that charge about the same as godaddy.

[astevens]

Another vote for namecheap here. I switched over when old man Parsons took a lot of pride in his hunting videos. I'm not an activist or anything, but he could at least conduct himself with a bit of tact.

[a_a_r_o_n]

I've used pairnic for ten years for personal sites, never any trouble, they'll probably be in business longer than me.

[ryandvm]

Looking for a good, cheap GoDaddy alternative that also has an API for scripting host name changes (yes, I host a server on my cable modem).

[waffle_ss]

You could always use a dynamic DNS service[0] for your DNS A record, like dnsdynamic.org, then set up your 'main' domain name to be a CNAME record to your free dynamic DNS one. Most home routers have built in support for dynamic DNS already. It does add a level of indirection/potential failure, but then you aren't restricted to registrars with APIs for changing DNS.

e.g. ryandvm.com (CNAME) -> ryandvm.dnsdynamic.org (A) -> 123.123.123.123

This is what I use for my home server, and it seems to work well.

[0]: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Dynamic_DNS (list of providers)

[falava]

gandi.net with a reseller account has an XML-RPC API, good registrar, not so cheap:

http://wiki.gandi.net/fr/api-xml/docs/domain/host

[luser001]

Check out pairnic (https://www.pairnic.com/faq_dyn_dns.html?dyn_dns_50). They support the the dynamic DNS protocol.

I also run a server at home and use ddclient on Ubuntu to update the IP address of a host on my own domain. Works great! Highly recommended.

[wastedbrains]

I am moving all my domains to DNSimple.com now... I have hated GoDaddy for so long, and started registering all new domains at DNSimple but hadn't taken the time to transfer all my old domains... Finally doing that now... They have a nice API.

[jessedhillon]

Dreamhost has an API for this -- contact me, email is in my profile. I have written a script that updates a DNS record with my current home public IP, before I got a static one.

[manojlds]

Article says - Stop online Privacy???? I suppose Google, Facebook and others would love that

[ojbyrne]

Freudian slip or that's the next bill in the pipeline ;-)

[jwblackwell]

I've got a feeling Namcheap are going to do pretty well if Go Daddy carries on like this.

[chalst]

I still don't get it. What's in it for them? Have they got connections to big media?

[revscat]

The CEO of GoDaddy is a hardcore Republican. They tend to be more authoritarian than other people. Like you, I see no direct financial benefit to GoDaddy in supporting SOPA. I suspect this is simply that authoritarian tendency in action.

[jebblue]

So far, there is a very clear picture emerging to me of who the anti-SOPA people are. It looks a lot like the Occupy Wall Street images. I'm not for or against SOPA so far, still making up my mind but the people who are against it so far aren't helping their case much with all the arm waving and now veteran hating that I see in the comments on this page.

[AndyKelley]

What does veteran hating have to do with whether or not SOPA is good legislation? Truth is truth, regardless of how despicable the truth-bearer is.

[linuxhansl]

This is the best line: The U.S. military has unintentionally procured counterfeit products that could easily have put our troops in grave danger had they gone undetected.

The military gets conned into buying counterfeit products, but somehow it is the fault of the inter-tubes that that occurred.

Good buy reason and common sense.

[patja]

Actual article title is "Here Is Godaddy’s Statement In Support Of The Stop Online Privacy Act House Hearing Tomorrow"

Maybe Godaddy thought they were throwing their weight behind an effort to stop online Privacy, not Piracy? :)

[gasull]

I've used http://www.name.com/ in the past. It's cheap and with very good usability, unlike the clunky GoDaddy's UI.

[olegious]

I wish I had some domains to remove from Godaddy- but I got rid of my Godaddy account after that elephant killing story.

[swalsh]

Reddit has been throwing around the idea of making December 29th pull your domains day.

[maeon3]

from the article: I’m finding that most of the concerns on the substance out there are unfounded.  The notion that the solutions that have been put forth will break the Internet, or that certain legal businesses will go off-line because of new mandates is utterly unconvincing to me.

Good men had to die to give me the freedom this man is trying to take away. This man made his fortune in a country founded on what he is actively destroying. Lets take away some of godaddy's freedom. Lets make this an unprofitable year for them.

[mapgrep]

Good men had to die to give us due process; yet our government can now officially assassinate citizens without trial.

Good men had to die to firmly establish habeas corpus; yet today our government detains people indefinitely without trial.

Good men had to die to ban unlawful search and seizure; that right lies in ruins amid warrantless phone wiretaps and a farcical law that says email left on a server for more than 60 days is abandoned property.

SOPA is terrible and the right of startups to avoid prosecution for user piracy is important — but for you to invoke the death of American soldiers across countless wars in support of this relatively narrow cause, when there is so much other injustice going on, greatly undermines your point. A little perspective goes a long way.

[nik_0_0]

"Parsons enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was assigned to the 26th Marine Regiment which was attached to and operated as part of the 1st Marine Division. In 1969 he served as a rifleman in the Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, during a tour of duty in Vietnam, in the Quảng Nam Province."

Looks like the owner of GoDaddy fought for your freedom as well.

[billpatrianakos]

They seem to want to dumb down the Internet. Their reasons for support, with all the "safety online" rhetoric made me want to vomit. The number one registrar obviously doesn't get the Internet. The Internet isn't about safety and we don't need anyone to protect us online. That responsibility should fall upon each of us. They're playing off people's ignorance to try to make us all believe that they support SOPA for out own good.

I don't want to be protected online. I'll take my chances in exchange for being able to decide for myself what is safe and how I behave even if I decide wrong.