
Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA - johnnytee
http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/release-view.aspx?news_item_id=378&isc=smtwsup
======
drx
_> 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.

~~~
sounds
This is hilarious!

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.

~~~
draggnar
Here's another from last night:

> Go Daddy has received some emails that appear to stem from the boycott
> prompt, but we have not seen any impact to our business. We understand there
> are many differing opinions on the SOPA regulations

Translation: Screw you guys, wait, what did you say Jimmy Wales?

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/godaddy-
face...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/godaddy-faces-
december-29-boycott-over-sopa-support.ars)

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/godaddy-
face...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/godaddy-faces-
december-29-boycott-over-sopa-support.ars)

------
markbao
The only thing this means is that community action actually made a difference.
That's immensely reassuring.

Can we keep doing this, but for SOPA itself?

~~~
dclowd9901
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.

~~~
botker
That's 1 down, 141 to go. Who's next?
[http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rouge%20Websites/SOPA%20Su...](http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rouge%20Websites/SOPA%20Supporters.pdf)

~~~
jlcx
There's no good place to say this, but that URL bothers me every time I see
it. What the hell are "Rouge Websites?" I think they meant something else. :-P

~~~
Zak
Clearly, they mean websites that are red. Red means communist. We must protect
ourselves from the threat of communism.

~~~
Steko
Make up America!!1 Every year we lose tens of thousands of dollars to
counterfeit online cosmetics!

Fight the powder! We need SOAP to unmascara the pirates!

------
ajays
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._

~~~
NegativeK
The proof I'll accept?

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
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.

~~~
fsniper
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?

~~~
marquis
"After further analysis it has become clear that SOPA is not constitutional
and we cannot, in good faith, support this bill?"

------
wastedbrains
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.

~~~
phereford
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.

------
api
Too little, too late. Fuck them.

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.

~~~
rhizome31
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.

~~~
jberryman
Be extremely thankful you don't have to actually _use_ their goddamn site for
anything.

------
pokoleo
> 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.

------
int3rnaut
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.

~~~
tibbon
I don't think it takes guts. I think it takes your CFO making some financial
projections and your PR lead screaming at you for screwing up.

This isn't a very "authentic" feeling turnaround. It feels like PR damage
control, which is exactly what it is. Its pretty clear looking at their
Twitter account that Godaddy doesn't really understand social media, and from
this response they don't understand PR in 2011.

In regard to their Twitter responses:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3386961>

~~~
mehwoot
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

------
cabalamat
> "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.

~~~
balloot
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.

------
mwsherman
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.

Again: correct outcome and for the right reasons.

~~~
marshray
I don't think they should be commended for backing away (only after huge
public outrage) from a position that was despicable in the first place.

I'm happy to forget about them for a while longer.

~~~
mwsherman
And that’s fine! They’ve turned you off as a customer, based on issues that
are important to you.

I’m simply pointing out that (perhaps) outcomes matter a bit more than our
indignant feelings.

~~~
int3rnaut
I totally agree with you. The real story here is that a large player in the
internet (self proclaimed "World's #1 Domain registrar") crossed the line--to
the "good side", therein lending more power to the cause of stopping this
thing.

~~~
marshray
No, the "good side" is opposing censorship and DNS filtering.

Read what they wrote:

 _Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act"
currently working its way through U.S. Congress.

"Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has
been working to help craft revisions to this legislation - but we can clearly
do better," Warren Adelman, Go Daddy's newly appointed CEO, said. "It's very
important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it
right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet
community supports it."_

They are explicitly just backing off on this specific bill with the intent to
do it "better" in the future.

GoDaddy sounds to me like they're reaffirming their support of the principle
of DNS-based censorship and the domain seizure practices they currently
participate in.

------
ghshephard
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.

------
RyanMcGreal
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).

~~~
pasbesoin
With an effective enough response, we may be able to turn this into a
proverbial "third rail" that no one is willing to touch.

Don't lose the momentum.

------
bradleyland
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."

~~~
bradleyland
According to this article, just over a week. Talk about stepping in "it".

[http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/23/godaddy-ceo-there-has-to-
be...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/23/godaddy-ceo-there-has-to-be-consensus-
about-the-leadership-of-the-internet-community/)

------
OstiaAntica
Next step: GoDaddy's General Counsel, Christine Jones, who is an architect of
SOPA, needs to resign.

------
singer
I am still going to transfer all of my domains anyhow. They should not have
supported it from the start.

------
johnnytee
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.

~~~
marshray
Well not necessarily.

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.

------
rumblestrut
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.

~~~
weaksauce
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.

~~~
rumblestrut
If that's true, then I'll go ahead and transfer them now. One of my concerns
was losing money on transferring them way before they expire. Thanks!

~~~
intenex
No worries - additional time gained by the transfer is always appended to the
current expiration date on the domain

------
meanJim
I could've sworn I read a post from them yesterday saying they didn't care and
it wasn't affecting business.

~~~
bcjordan
I could've sworn they said they would ignore negative customer feedback and
spin off a company called "Qwikster".

------
chuinard
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?

~~~
dclowd9901
You preclude the possibility that perhaps people will only act when it
actually gets as bad as SOPA.

Just as a company is motivated proportionally by money, a person is motivated
by proportionally by how much something affects them.

------
digitalboss
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.

Nice job keeping the fire on this.

------
balloot
Too late. Their petulant and dickish responses from the last few days show
their true feelings on the issue.

~~~
fletchowns
Exactly, I'll still be transferring my 21 domains out of GoDaddy before the
new year.

------
pasbesoin
Crocodile tears

At this point, perhaps I'm biased and this is not the most productive
response, by my personal opinion is still to "nuke 'em".

Far too little and way too late -- they were part of getting this monstrosity
rolling, and their current action does little to stop it.

Put it in the entertainment industry's own lingo: The world needs an
"example". And I think we'd have a hard time finding a better candidate
(though there may be a some yet more deserving).

------
plainOldText
Boycotting is one of the most effective strategies to use when dealing with a
company whose actions or stance you don't like. I'd wish more people started
doing this when dealing with insurance companies,ISPs, record labels,
facebook, heck even the government. After all, they are nothing without their
customers.

------
dollar
Until GoDaddy makes an official public statement to Congress, the transfers
are still on.

------
a_a_r_o_n
This is great, and obviously from pressure. I suspect thought that it wasn't
the hundreds of relatively unknown sites that turned it around. I'd bet it was
Wikipedia. At some point even GoDaddy had to realize that this looks really,
really bad.

Thanks Wikipedia. (and I hope they continue the switch anyway)

<http://twitter.com/#!/jimmy_wales/status/150287579642740736>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3387071>

------
jamesflorentino
I cannot trust a company who changes their philosophy based on how well it
impacts their business.

~~~
spodek
They didn't change their philosophy.

For better or for worse all companies' philosophies are to make money, at
least the public ones. They can be sued if they deviate.

------
Canada
Read their press release. They still basically support it, they're just
temporarily pausing public support because we're all upset about it.

Action speaks louder than words. Let GoDaddy know they actually have to _do_
something that is in the interests of a free and open internet. Taking action
that is harmful and then giving lip service to freedom and spewing platitudes
is not enough. Let them know it:

Stephanie Bracken, PR Specialist 480.505.8800 ext.4451 PR@GoDaddy.com

------
EGreg
Someone posted this in a comment section and I had to say it, it's clever.

If neither side strongly supports or opposes something but lobbyists strongly
support it then expect it to pass John Doe.

The best way to stop SOPA would ironically be the democrats strongly coming
out in support of the bill, which would make the house suddenly refuse to even
vote on SOPA, and would cause the bill to be filibustered in the senate. Why,
because republicans have to oppose anything Obama/democrats are for.

Republicans strongly supporting SOPA would also likely kill it. The house
would pass it, and Reid would refuse to even bring it to a vote in the Senate,
or would bring it to a vote knowing that it'll lose just to show republicans
that it can't pass the senate.

If you doubt me then look at the payroll taxcut fight going on right now.
Republicans always support tax cuts, except when Obama & democrats support it,
like the payroll tax cut being discussed.

The pharmacy lobbyists know this as well, there was part of Obama's healthcare
law (I forget what part) that big pharma wanted removed from the bill that a
lot of democrats had opposed when the healthcare law was written. Big pharma
lobbyists told Republicans not to go on a public rampage demonizing that
provision and blaming it on Obama, republicans demonized it and Obama for
signing it into law anyway, and dozens of democrats who had previously voiced
opposition to the provision voted against repealing the provision when the
House voted on it months ago, and Reid refused to even hold a vote on it.

So the moral of the story? If we want to kill SOPA we just need to convince
one political party to strongly support SOPA. The other party will reflexively
strongly oppose SOPA and block it from ever becoming law.

------
timjahn
They look so desperate right now on their Twitter feed, furiously tweeting
everybody to let them know they're once again a "cool kid".

I wouldn't put it past them to support SOPA once enough people transfer
back/keep their business with them.

~~~
______
What will they gain by tweeting the _same exact thing_ over and over so many
times?

------
digitalboss
Here's the Reddit discussion -
[http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/no6b1/go_daddy_n...](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/no6b1/go_daddy_no_longer_supports_sopa_latest_blog_post/)

~~~
lukejduncan
Is cross-posting links an attempt at getting karma/upvotes?

~~~
digitalboss
Its an attempt to getting two smart groups of ppl talking about equal weighted
topics....

Karma is a benefit...

carry on...

------
danberger
I agree with a lot of people here. This is clearly a direct result of the
harsh public backlash they've faced from the community. This statement can
only be taken at face value until they do much more than post a public
statement rescinding their support. We should continue pushing them and they
should publicly speak against SOPA to its supporters and in Congress. They
need to walk the walk not just talk the talk.

I am, however, a little confused.

Wasn't the goal of the campaign against GoDaddy to convince them to no longer
support SOPA? Isn't this a small victory? If people in the community are not
going to support them no matter what they do, where is their incentive to
change behavior? I understand the cynicism but we need to also reward
companies doing the right thing, even if they took some wrong turns along the
way.

[edit: formatting]

------
savetz
I read their statement, and it seems like lip service. The culture of a
company/philosophy of the CEO doesn't turn on a dime.

------
atarian
I've been reading over GoDaddy's blog posting from yesterday, and I just can't
dismiss the feeling that GoDaddy's position as one of the largest domain
registrars has given them a different view of American businesses facing
difficulty with these so-called "foreign-based websites."

The blog posting emphasizes several times the importance and need to protect
American businesses, which to me seems patriotic and sympathetic to promoting
a good intention. I'm sure they didn't realize they would be "villanized" as a
result of their actions.

Disclaimer: I don't support SOPA.

~~~
aroberge
As a registrar that does business internationally, it may seem (to an
American) that it is appropriate for them to be patriotic ... but it is
certainly not a good way to continue appealing to international consumers. The
Internet should be boundary-free.

------
bborud
While I applaud GoDaddy for having reversed their position on SOPA, I believe
they did so not because it was the right thing to do but because they feared
for their bottom line.

I still think people should stay away from GoDaddy. You should not do business
with anyone whose first instinct is to support defective legislation when they
so clearly should know better. GoDaddy have shown what their values are. It is
going to take a lot more than a press release to convince me that they are
deserving of my business in the future.

------
jaysonelliot
I don't care what GoDaddy says to try and prevent a boycott.

They already did the damage, and they've showed many, many, many times over
that they do not deserve to have anyone's business.

The boycott should remain.

------
vinhboy
Why is everyone so scornful? I am not suggesting we forgive and forget, but
shouldn't we be a little more understanding? What's with the "no flip-flop"
culture we have nowadays?

~~~
djeikyb
I'm scornful because their "recanting" still explicitly names dns filtering as
A Good Useful Thing that they are proud of helping refine. They explicitly say
they are proud of and would love to support this legislation. They don't get
it.

"Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

------
rbrady
GoDaddy previously invested time and money into supporting this legislation:
"have worked with federal lawmakers for months to help craft revisions to
legislation first introduced some three years ago."

Let's see them invest some time and money into stopping SOPA. Making a
statement is one thing, but money is speech these days and they can afford
better lobbyists than we can.

------
andrewingram
The cynic in me is wondering whether this was a strategic move by SOPA
supporters to remove a very easy source of negative press. I suspect the other
pro-SOPA organisations are going to be a lot harder to boycott effectively.

The anti-SOPA movement is going to view this as a major win, which may
distract from the bigger issue.

------
schrototo
Bunch of weasels.

------
samstave
The question is now, if they do not "support" SOPA, willthey comply with any
SOPA related domain takedowns should SOPA pass?

Sure, they don't overtly claim to support this law - but their actions after
the fact shall really show whats going on inside.

Anyone recall when Earthlink was the only company to refuse to comply with
allowing Carnivore boxes in its network?

Even though Earthlink, as a Scientologist founded provider, already had an
internal policy of scanning all the traffic on their network to begin with.)

When the government shows up and wants something, very few companies refuse to
comply. Even when they do not support the actions of the government.

We should be standing up to those companies as well - but we tend to forget
quickly.

Nobody stood up to AT&T when they spied on EVERYONE for the crooks in
DHS/NSA/CIA.

~~~
marshray
The lone whistle-blowing engineer, the EFF, Wired mag, and others stood up to
AT&T. <http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70126>

The reality is though that AT&T is far less of a public-facing company with a
much more locked-in customer base. It's very easy to switch away from a
company like GoDaddy and they know it.

------
sixQuarks
It's too late GoDaddy! You're an evil company and have been so for years. Now
the internet community has finally seen your true colors. Take your war-
mongering, right-wing founder and go to hell for all I care. I hope everyone
continues the backlash against you.

------
sirwanqutbi
I say still boycott godaddy, just for having supported SOPA in the first
place. The problem is Godaddy still does support and only pulled out, since
threats of boycotts were made by there customers. LEAVE GO DADDY

~~~
klausjensen
This can't be reiterated enough. A company that is so evil, that it could
support SOPA in the first place, will not lose that evilness and rotten
culture overnight.

------
danoc
Too late. The damage is done, in my opinion.

------
RexRollman
"Go Daddy has always fought to preserve the intellectual property rights of
third parties."

Doesn't that kind of imply that GoDaddy is less than concerned about the
rights of domain owners? Guilty until proven innocent, I guess.

~~~
FuzzyDunlop
One could argue that if they fought to preserve the IP rights of third
parties, they wouldn't be in the business of enabling the infringement of
those rights by selling domain names and server space.

------
invisible
Christine Jones needs to encourage Congress not to pass this on behalf of
Godaddy for this to be more than just a PR move. If they don't reverse their
support in Congress, this is nothing more than a copout.

------
Canada
To those of you who are able to vote in any of the Republican primaries: Ron
Paul has always opposed SOPA.

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/strange-
bedf...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/strange-bedfellows-
nancy-pelosi-ron-paul-join-sopa-opposition.ars)

[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111115/09233216778/ron-
pa...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111115/09233216778/ron-paul-comes-
out-against-sopa-joins-other-elected-officials-saying-no-to-great-firewall-
america.shtml)

------
x3c
The fact that GoDaddy recanted is significant because any other internet
companies will think twice before supporting SOPA, atleast publicly but that
matters a lot. Maybe if US citizens could get more aware of the situation,
they can make a dent in Media moguls' purses as well.

PR matters a _lot_ to companies, if general population shows this kind of
activism, SOPA can be defeated. Good luck US, the rest of the world is waiting
for you to nip this censorship in the bud before it spreads like the virus in
Resident Evil movies.

------
hrabago
This is good for multiple reasons. One, it shows people that their voices do
matter. They can contact their vendors and express opposition and if there are
plenty enough of them, they can exert influence. Two, it shows other companies
that there are enough people out there who are against SOPA that a big vendor
like GoDaddy has had to flipflop its support for it because it threatened
their bottom line. It will at least force them to have another conversation
about withdrawing SOPA support.

------
iamandrus
But now the question is whether this is just damage control or if they really
support anti-SOPA efforts now. Either way, they learned not to fuck with the
Internet (their customers).

------
ChuckMcM
I think the positive outcome here is that Go Daddy publicly responded to
customer pressure over what was no doubt a lot of 'insider' pressure from the
folks at the RIAA/MPAA etc.

Getting the public and Congress educated on the realities of information value
is a painfully slow process. However, as the wave finally crests I think our
grandchildren will look back on this and say "Wow, you all really thought some
weird things." (of course they will likely think that anyway but still)

------
amirhhz
I just tried to follow this link on my phone and it redirects to
godaddymobile.com to show me some spam and no article. And they're in the
Internet business...?

This company just reeks of clunkiness and tackiness. As keeps being mentioned,
I can't believe tech-savvy, well-informed, well-educated people (e.g. YC
founders) could go on godaddy.com, see their marketing material ("Go Daddy
Girl (R)" ... what?!), their interface etc., and still go ahead and give them
money.

------
Gobitron
I think a lot of people here are missing the point. It's not about GoDaddy.
It's about results. This is a very public about-face, and regardless of their
actual intent shows that these types of campaigns can be successful.

May I suggest the next target? Comcast and the other cable providers. We
should threaten to cancel our cable service unless they stop supporting SOPA.
Obviously they will not do this, so we should actually cancel our cable
subscriptions!

------
Ataraxy
Well that was a quick turn around.

------
erlis
This has just proved that we need to redesign the society, we are living with
an obsolete model pre-internet. Who need their interest represented by one
individual when everyone can have his voice now!? It's really evident that
SOPA is an example of antidemoCrazy.

I'm glad Go-Daddy changed his mind. Now, this was just one battle, the war is
not over! Let's stop when SOPA is no more, let's stop when we can decide
what's best for all of us!

------
erlis
Go Daddy is knowing how it feels to be blocked, internet reaction against Go
Daddy was a reflex of what SOPA want to do. How does that feels Daddy?

------
lancefisher
I commend them for changing their stance, but I've already transferred my
domains, and it's not like I'm going to transfer them back now.

------
54mf
Fantastic. I guess now we only have shady business practices, misogyny, and
animal cruelty as reasons to not do business with GoDaddy.

------
MrBlue
I call BS. Sorry Parsons the boycott is still on.

------
wan23
This is great! We should do this to every company on the list until there's no
one willing to publicly support this nonsense.

------
joshuahedlund
If they still support the Senate version (PROTECT-IP / PIPA) this means
little. I'm ecstatic that the anti-SOPA crowd is advancing by leaps and bounds
on an almost daily basis here, but in the next month we need to up the
pressure on PIPA too - especially because it's farther along (full Senate set
to discuss it January 24)

------
rokhayakebe
Again, the people have won. I am truly looking to see someone productize the
power of the people on internet, and urging us to vote for and against a
company with our dollars. A place where we can see what each company is up to
(socially, and in other ways), and encouraging or discouraging consumers to
work with them.

------
cheald
This doesn't mean it's okay to use them. Even if they're sincere in this
turnaround (and I highly doubt they are), the fact that they lent support to
this legislation at all shows that they are at best clueless, and at worst
evil. In either case, they aren't going to be getting my business anymore.

------
hdt
A lot of behind the scenes action was probably going on here. Lots of negative
scenarios could have played out for GoDaddy. Bob will do as he pleases, but
other executives and board members could have pushed back to save key
relationships.

------
anrope
> _Go Daddy and its General Counsel, Christine Jones, have worked with federal
> lawmakers for months to help craft revisions to legislation_

Go Daddy wouldn't be my first choice for who I want representing the internet
to the government.

------
bborud
This line from techcrunch sums it up nicely:

"While it’s nice that they changed their stance (publicly, at least), you’ve
got to ask yourself: do you want to continue throwing money at a company blind
enough to support SOPA in the first place?"

------
bradleyland
This is great news. Now for the relevant question: How does it impact the
passage of SOPA?

GoDaddy doesn't vote on legislation. I'm sending letters to my representatives
right now pointing out the backlash and about face that GoDaddy has done.

------
ascentofstan
GD's response should lie in the positive feedback loop for the boycott. Press
on.

------
superchink
So, who's next on the list of SOPA supporters to boycott? Let's do it again
until we actually make a difference.

It needs to be someone visible to whom we can send a very clear message, quite
quickly.

------
7654321
"Boycotts do not work."

Yeah right.

Maybe if we focusing on Congress.

Maybe if we stop focusing on SOPA supporters.

Maybe if we focus on the media industries that are pushing SOPA through.

Maybe if we boycott them and their entertainment products.

Maybe they will recoil, just like GoDaddy.

Maybe.

"Boycotts do not work."

------
Shenglong
This isn't even close to enough. I want to see GoDaddy actively take a stand
against SOPA, much like (other) tech companies have done.

If they do that, perhaps I'll consider staying with them.

------
walru
At this point the damage has been done.

Backing down from a position they had such strong convictions in only makes
them look like more of a rat.

They have no honor and now they no longer have my business.

------
masmullin
Now can we focus on the United States Tennis Association next?

------
Supermighty
I still want to move my domains away. Has anyone had any experience with
gandi.net or namecheap.com any interesting experiences with either one?

------
gdw2
Ok everybody, transfer all your domains back... :-P

~~~
Turing_Machine
I know you were joking, but not a chance. The only effect this will have as
far as I'm concerned is to move the transfer to the back burner for a bit (I'm
on vacation at the moment, so I wasn't looking forward to dealing with the
transfer hassle. Now I can enjoy a guilt-free holiday and do the transfer
after I get back).

I was only on GoDaddy out of inertia/laziness anyway. At one time (quite a few
years ago) they were...not good, exactly, but maybe the "least evil" of the
available choices (a very similar situation to what you see with cell phone
and cable TV providers). That hasn't been the case for quite some time, but I
stuck with them just for the convenience of having all my stuff in one place.
The constant upselling was annoying, but I rarely tinker with domain settings
after the original config, so it was tolerable. This nonsense was the last
nudge that was needed to push them over the cliff.

------
pknerd
The power of Internet community. I hope we could use same force and enthusiasm
to eliminate poverty from the world.

------
poutine
Congratulations Reddit. Boycotts do work!

------
jwblackwell
I actually think the reversal shows a complete lack of spine and only steers
me away from GoDaddy even further.

------
acak
"When you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow." \-
All the President's Men (1976)

------
NARKOZ
I think they're lying and still support it just don't want to lose the money.

------
gojomo
Great, kid. Don't get cocky.

------
shomyo
Too late

------
vaksel
if they really cared about the internet community, they wouldn't have been
defending this stuff tooth and nail...mocking people saying that their
transfers don't matter to them.

------
Cl4rity
Does anyone actually trust GoDaddy's word? I didn't think so.

------
freejack
Boing Boing is claiming this was just a PR stunt. Thoughts?

------
antirez
I guess we can say that godaddy is eventually consistent.

------
thomasgerbe
Next up: AT&T and Net Neutrality?!

------
tulsidas
a little too late now, I guess

------
j45
Geeks of the world unite! :)

------
ricardobeat
I can only laugh at this...

------
davidcollantes
Too little, too late.

------
spencerfry
Too little. Too late.

------
ed2417
Go Daddy does Netflix.

------
rkon
More like "GoDaddy no longer publicly supports SOPA".

Just looking out for their bottom line, I'm sure.

~~~
benburleson
That is the simple rule of life. If you ever wonder why someone/company is
doing what they do, follow the money.

~~~
jrockway
Why does Google work on self-driving cars and cancer diagnostics?

~~~
objclxt
...because nobody got rich off pharma, and the kind of AI tech on self driving
cars has no real world applications.

~~~
jrockway
Why aren't pharma companies developing internet advertising platforms, then?

If every company did every thing that everyone else ever did successfully... I
can't even finish this sentence.

------
noduerme
Hah. I just reloaded HN and clicked the comments here -- I've had a few drinks
-- I thought this was the same article along the lines of "Go Daddy Supports
SOPA", until I read through the responses.

This just shows what a couple thousand mobilized, highly motivated geeks can
do in six hours. HN is solely responsible for this. Imagine if the top-ten
stories for the day on this board were about the conditions at Apple's
factories in China. Or the massacres going on in Syria, for that matter.
Something more important than whether that elephant-murdering bastard is a
99%, or a 100% asshole.

But, credit where it's due, this isn't the first time I've noticed a shift in
public perception within 24-48 hours of a major HN freakout. I won't say how
much money I've made buying or selling based on watching this phenomenon --
not a ton -- but it's recently been more than I make at my day job. It's a
shame Godaddy's not publicly traded, or we could've all had some fun with it.

This _is_ the place where the people who man the engines spend their time. And
when the engineers are pissed, shit breaks. Never mind that engineers are just
as often wrong as everybody else, just think of HN articles as events that
bubble, and figure out if they're going to be ignored or not by the larger
program.

~~~
aroberge
_HN is solely responsible for this_

I love HN. But that statement is myopic and over the top. I believe that
Reddit started the discussion on a boycott. At the very least, much discussion
took place there.

~~~
jmonegro
That is correct. I'd say Reddit is the one solely responsible for this.

~~~
Xurinos
You meant jointly.

~~~
swdunlop
Nono.. It means many different people are solely responsible. ;)

------
presidentx
I don't believe GoDaddy on this, and I certainly wouldn't trust them.

------
xxiao
too late, in fact will never use godaddy.

