> In changing its position, Go Daddy remains steadfast in its promise to support security and stability of the Internet. In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.
> "Go Daddy has always fought to preserve the intellectual property rights of third parties, and will continue to do so in the future," Jones said.
Translation: we got caught this time, but will not hesitate to do it again.
> In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.
Translation: we said some pretty stupid things yesterday.
> Go Daddy ... worked with federal lawmakers for months ... legislation first introduced some three years ago ... entire Internet community ... ensure the integrity of the Internet
Translation: we've been neck-deep in this legislation, and will be pushing the next version of this bill too. Seized domains would have been a de facto transfer to Go Daddy.
> In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.
Businesses run the government. Money controls business.
This happened to be one of those issues where it was very easy to clearly show the company that their particular actions would not be tolerated. Not only that, but the difficulty of moving your support away from them was tremendously easy as well.
Because of limitations, not all industries enjoy this sort of free market-esque lateral movement. Comm companies, for instance, enjoy the benefits of an established infrastructure to keep other players out, and to keep you contracted with them, even under anti-consumer behaviors.
This was just a case of all the pieces lining up just right, and the market actually aligning with consumer demand.
> Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance
This is not what I expect to hear from a CEO of the company that is an integral cog of the Internet. He still got his priorities all wrong, and his interests are still not aligned with the interests of the majority of Internet users. GoDaddy is exactly where it was yesterday, they simply made a cosmetic PR statement that doesn't really affect anything long term.
What's not reassuring to me is that people are satisfied with this. Let's get real, GoDaddy is trying to dampen the outrage with very little. It may be a good sign - and we should feel happy - that we're starting to make a difference, but GoDaddy did a lot to support SOPA, they should do more than a PR blog post for people to declare victory and wrap up the GoDaddy+SOPA situation.
It's possible that they were faced with a mass walkout of key employees.
I know I'd tender my resignation the next day if I worked for someone who issued a press release like Go Daddy's earlier one. As a rule, the few employees who are genuinely mission-critical to a large organization can always find work somewhere else.
Don't be fooled, people. I will believe GoDaddy when they provide proof that they have indeed stopped supporting SOPA. They claim that they've been working with lawmakers for months; what is to stop them from publicly "withdrawing" support for SOPA, while they continue to support it behind the scenes?
Until SOPA and its offsprings are dead, keep the pressure on GoDaddy and other supporters of SOPA! Don't let these weak public statements distract you; there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes.
Publicly telling Congress that GoDaddy supported SOPA, but had to back off when customers told them it's a bad idea -- and that Congress should do the same.
No matter what they say, GoDaddy hasn't reversed their position until they do so in front of Congress and publicly withdraw their letter of support from the judiciary committee hearings.
I agree. This boycott is starting to make a difference, but it's too early to declare victory. We've made it this far, we shouldn't give up so easily. If we buy this PR talk without further questions, then we're fooling ourselves to think we won, and we're setting a bad example. They did a lot in favor of SOPA, if they mean what they just said, then they need to do something against it. If not, it's meaningless and we got fooled.
The boycott should continue until they either take - or announce their plan of - action. Until they do, this PR talk is nothing more than that.
what could they say? we know sopa would make us some money but even before it's legilated it started to cost us money than we had to withdrew our support?
Reversing a decision only after costumers leave you in droves doesn't show your trust worthy. They either didn't understand the bill (in which case they shouldn't write a letter supporting it), or they are only changing now waiting for the bad PR to die down. If you have domains with them it is still worth switching to a company that will always publicly support freedom over oppressing peoples views to attempt to prevent some IP infringement. The rights to freedoms are more important than the rights to absolute control over corporations IP.
There is no way they didn't understand the bill. They fully understood the bill and probably were vying for a way to benefit from the bill. Everyone understands how bad this bill is for the Internet, unless someone has something to gain from it.
GoDaddy must have had something either legal or under the table that would benefit them immensely if they supported the bill.
Of course, I would have said that before they stopped supporting SOPA. They've always been a sleazy spammy company whose advertising is full of blatant sexism. We should not have been surprise by their support of SOPA. Sleaze will do as sleaze does.
Sums up my feelings pretty well. Transferred everything to Gandi. Not so many domains (maybe 10), but I couldn't have my personal domains associated with a brand like Godaddy.
The casual sexism and stupidity of their ads always grated, but I simply didn't want to drop the money to leave. That was stupid of me, "carrying a poisonous scorpion on your back" stupid. No more.
I've never been on their website (most of us over here use gandi.net) and was curious what you meant by blatant sexism and I just have to say wow. Just wow. It's so stupid it looks fake.
> In changing its position, Go Daddy remains steadfast in its promise to support security and stability of the Internet. In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.
Translation: Go Daddy removed all incriminating evidence of it's past.
I can't believe all the hate going on. They publicly admitted they were wrong and changed their stance. I don't care if you are a gigantic corporation or not, that takes guts and I can at least respect that.
There's no doubt they did it to stop the bleeding, but they still did it. And that's what we want right? For SOPA to lose traction, and for it not to pass. Yet it seems like this has almost become a dump on godaddy festival. Please don't lose sight of the reasons as to why we as rational internet using human beings did this in the first place.
> "Go Daddy has always fought to preserve the intellectual property rights of third parties, and will continue to do so in the future"
Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but this reads to me like: we still support SOPA, but we're going to pretend we don't, because we realise our customers are against it, but feel we can fool them by making a pro forma denunciation of SOPA.
I'm not a customer of Go Daddy, but if I was I would still transfer my domains. This declaration isn't good enough for me.
Agreed. They were totally for SOPA yesterday, and even went so far as to publicly antagonize people who disagreed with their position. Their general counsel was also an architect of the bill. Forgive me if I don't quite buy that they're going to stop pulling strings in SOPA's favor behind the scenes.
This is the right outcome, and they should be commended. I think SOPA is awful, and they were on the wrong side of the argument. Subsequently, they listened to customers and changed their position. (Yes, it’s self-interest, just like you and I engage in.)
One should resist the urge to say “yeah but they’re still awful people” unless one is willing to bring the same passion to everyone else on the list of supporters.
My lord - I'm reading the response - and it gets worse:
"Go Daddy and its General Counsel, Christine Jones, have worked with federal lawmakers for months to help craft revisions to legislation first introduced some three years ago. "
Go Daddy wasn't simply _supporting_ SOPA - they were involved in creating it. They used their expert knowledge of DNS and DNS systems to create a system, which, I'm sure, would have provided them some competitive advantages.
If anything, this makes them even less trustworthy as an registrar than they were previously.
Realistically, the best way to stop systemically bad legislation like SOPA is just to keep delaying and delaying it until it loses momentum and peters out (at which time another systemically bad piece of legislation will arrive to take its place, starting the cycle over again).
Does anyone know when Bob Parsons stepped down as CEO? I realize he's still the Executive Chairman, but the "About GoDaddy" section at the bottom of the page still refers to him as CEO. The article also refers to Warren Adelman as "Go Daddy's newly appointed CEO."
I've noticed they are directly tweeting to people like @aplusk and @photomatt, trying to get the word out. Obviously the community has made a dent in their bottom line.
Bad publicity has an impact all its own at most companies. For example, they have a whole Marketing department trying to get their name out there in a positive light. When their phones light up with every member of the press wanting quotes (press contacts they've spent years working on their relationship with) the executives have to get together and talk about it and come up with a unified response that won't blow up on them like CarrierIQ.
It's a big big deal for a public-facing company. Bigger than, say, a small decrease in the rate of new $2 account customers.
One of the ones they tweeted to was Jimmy Wales, who had just tweeted "I am proud to announce that the Wikipedia domain names will move away from GoDaddy. Their position on #sopa is unacceptable to us."
I set up a Namecheap account and purchased a domain yesterday. No terrible upselling, pretty straightforward shopping cart (not a fan that it didn't take Discover, but no biggie). Overall, it was a pleasant experience.
I'm a longtime Go Daddy customer and have several domains with them.
I've thought about moving from GoDaddy, but never made it a priority. But I finally got motivated enough to see the process of switching might not be as painful as I thought. Now that I've seen what else is out there, it's go time. As my domains expire in the next few months, I'll switch them over to Namecheap.
At least for me, it's too little, too late this time for Go Daddy.
I wouldn't wait; the process takes some time and if you put it off until the last minute you will be forced to stay with godaddy. You are not able to transfer a domain if there is less than 7 days left until expiration. do it now and namecheap(or most registrars) will honor the remaining time on the contract and add the year that you buy onto it. really no reason to wait.
GoDaddy has been under fire for years for various reasons. While the SOPA boycott was definitely worthwhile and effective, we should really understand the power that the community has to influence a company's practices, and maybe shouldn't wait until it gets as bad as SOPA support to do this again in the future?
The power of reality and real feedback from technology leaders - and not just a suit in an office checking the [yes] box on a document.
Amazing discussions on Reddit and Hacker News - it'll be till Sept 2012 that this goes to vote again, let's make sure the SOPA discussion doesn't die during this time.
[+] [-] drx|14 years ago|reply
> "Go Daddy has always fought to preserve the intellectual property rights of third parties, and will continue to do so in the future," Jones said.
Translation: we got caught this time, but will not hesitate to do it again.
[+] [-] sounds|14 years ago|reply
More translations that might make your day:
> In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.
Translation: we said some pretty stupid things yesterday.
> Go Daddy ... worked with federal lawmakers for months ... legislation first introduced some three years ago ... entire Internet community ... ensure the integrity of the Internet
Translation: we've been neck-deep in this legislation, and will be pushing the next version of this bill too. Seized domains would have been a de facto transfer to Go Daddy.
[+] [-] RexRollman|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fedxc|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mavrc|14 years ago|reply
Somebody read 1984 and rooted for Big Brother.
[+] [-] marshray|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] markbao|14 years ago|reply
Can we keep doing this, but for SOPA itself?
[+] [-] dclowd9901|14 years ago|reply
This happened to be one of those issues where it was very easy to clearly show the company that their particular actions would not be tolerated. Not only that, but the difficulty of moving your support away from them was tremendously easy as well.
Because of limitations, not all industries enjoy this sort of free market-esque lateral movement. Comm companies, for instance, enjoy the benefits of an established infrastructure to keep other players out, and to keep you contracted with them, even under anti-consumer behaviors.
This was just a case of all the pieces lining up just right, and the market actually aligning with consumer demand.
[+] [-] huhtenberg|14 years ago|reply
> Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance
This is not what I expect to hear from a CEO of the company that is an integral cog of the Internet. He still got his priorities all wrong, and his interests are still not aligned with the interests of the majority of Internet users. GoDaddy is exactly where it was yesterday, they simply made a cosmetic PR statement that doesn't really affect anything long term.
[+] [-] stephth|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] geekam|14 years ago|reply
I have been calling companies I am a customer or have been a customer of, to withdraw support if they want to keep me as a customer.
[+] [-] Natsu|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darkmethod|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CamperBob|14 years ago|reply
I know I'd tender my resignation the next day if I worked for someone who issued a press release like Go Daddy's earlier one. As a rule, the few employees who are genuinely mission-critical to a large organization can always find work somewhere else.
[+] [-] eurohacker|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ajays|14 years ago|reply
Until SOPA and its offsprings are dead, keep the pressure on GoDaddy and other supporters of SOPA! Don't let these weak public statements distract you; there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes.
[+] [-] NegativeK|14 years ago|reply
Publicly telling Congress that GoDaddy supported SOPA, but had to back off when customers told them it's a bad idea -- and that Congress should do the same.
[+] [-] bgentry|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephth|14 years ago|reply
The boycott should continue until they either take - or announce their plan of - action. Until they do, this PR talk is nothing more than that.
[+] [-] fsniper|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wastedbrains|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phereford|14 years ago|reply
GoDaddy must have had something either legal or under the table that would benefit them immensely if they supported the bill.
[+] [-] api|14 years ago|reply
Of course, I would have said that before they stopped supporting SOPA. They've always been a sleazy spammy company whose advertising is full of blatant sexism. We should not have been surprise by their support of SOPA. Sleaze will do as sleaze does.
[+] [-] jbm|14 years ago|reply
The casual sexism and stupidity of their ads always grated, but I simply didn't want to drop the money to leave. That was stupid of me, "carrying a poisonous scorpion on your back" stupid. No more.
[+] [-] rhizome31|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pokoleo|14 years ago|reply
Translation: Go Daddy removed all incriminating evidence of it's past.
[+] [-] int3rnaut|14 years ago|reply
There's no doubt they did it to stop the bleeding, but they still did it. And that's what we want right? For SOPA to lose traction, and for it not to pass. Yet it seems like this has almost become a dump on godaddy festival. Please don't lose sight of the reasons as to why we as rational internet using human beings did this in the first place.
[+] [-] cabalamat|14 years ago|reply
Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but this reads to me like: we still support SOPA, but we're going to pretend we don't, because we realise our customers are against it, but feel we can fool them by making a pro forma denunciation of SOPA.
I'm not a customer of Go Daddy, but if I was I would still transfer my domains. This declaration isn't good enough for me.
[+] [-] balloot|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mwsherman|14 years ago|reply
One should resist the urge to say “yeah but they’re still awful people” unless one is willing to bring the same passion to everyone else on the list of supporters.
Again: correct outcome and for the right reasons.
[+] [-] marshray|14 years ago|reply
I'm happy to forget about them for a while longer.
[+] [-] white_devil|14 years ago|reply
It's naive to believe anything else.
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ghshephard|14 years ago|reply
"Go Daddy and its General Counsel, Christine Jones, have worked with federal lawmakers for months to help craft revisions to legislation first introduced some three years ago. "
Go Daddy wasn't simply _supporting_ SOPA - they were involved in creating it. They used their expert knowledge of DNS and DNS systems to create a system, which, I'm sure, would have provided them some competitive advantages.
If anything, this makes them even less trustworthy as an registrar than they were previously.
[+] [-] RyanMcGreal|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bradleyland|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bradleyland|14 years ago|reply
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/23/godaddy-ceo-there-has-to-be...
[+] [-] OstiaAntica|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] singer|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnnytee|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marshray|14 years ago|reply
Bad publicity has an impact all its own at most companies. For example, they have a whole Marketing department trying to get their name out there in a positive light. When their phones light up with every member of the press wanting quotes (press contacts they've spent years working on their relationship with) the executives have to get together and talk about it and come up with a unified response that won't blow up on them like CarrierIQ.
It's a big big deal for a public-facing company. Bigger than, say, a small decrease in the rate of new $2 account customers.
[+] [-] Avenger42|14 years ago|reply
Wonder if they'll follow through now?
[+] [-] rumblestrut|14 years ago|reply
I'm a longtime Go Daddy customer and have several domains with them.
I've thought about moving from GoDaddy, but never made it a priority. But I finally got motivated enough to see the process of switching might not be as painful as I thought. Now that I've seen what else is out there, it's go time. As my domains expire in the next few months, I'll switch them over to Namecheap.
At least for me, it's too little, too late this time for Go Daddy.
[+] [-] weaksauce|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meanJim|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bcjordan|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chuinard|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dclowd9901|14 years ago|reply
Just as a company is motivated proportionally by money, a person is motivated by proportionally by how much something affects them.
[+] [-] digitalboss|14 years ago|reply
Amazing discussions on Reddit and Hacker News - it'll be till Sept 2012 that this goes to vote again, let's make sure the SOPA discussion doesn't die during this time.
Nice job keeping the fire on this.