
GoDaddy has not withdrawn its official congressional support for SOPA  - ParkerK
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/npair/godaddy_has_not_withdrawn_its_official/
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mattdeboard
Ok, seriously, enough. SOPA isn't going to collapse in on itself if GoDaddy
comes out swinging against it. This reminds me of the phrase "security
theater" as applied to the TSA. This is "activism theater" -- it accomplishes
nothing but it puts on a show and makes people feel better.

Applying this pressure to your congressmen is the only real way to affect
change. I've called each of mine and have the vapid "We're studying this
closely" response letters to prove it. I agree that action against individual
companies can be effective, but there is an extreme focus on GoDaddy like
they're the linchpin of this whole thing, some kind of mob boss when they're
just another company who has lent their weight to this legislation.

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scarmig
"Applying this pressure to your congressmen is the only real way to affect
change"

is followed by

"I've called each of mine and have the vapid response letters to prove it."

Slight disconnect there? =)

Don't mean to harp on it, because contacting your congresscritters is a
genuinely productive way to enact change. (Just don't put a whole lot of
effort writing a heartfelt argument informed with evidence and rigor--its
value comes more from indicating to the politician the breadth and energy of
opposition to SOPA.)

But focusing on GoDaddy isn't a distraction, either. One of the central rules
of political organizing is this: you pick the target, freeze it, personalize
it, and polarize it. Victory isn't going to come in one fell swoop: if it
comes at all, it will be through a loosely connected series of small
victories, looking plausible only in retrospect.

GoDaddy is an easy enemy: it has an anti-charismatic founder who has a long
history of general shittiness. A victory there doesn't only screw over
GoDaddy, which is in the grand scheme of things not even a secondary target--
its only actual goal is to make a quick buck from the feds. But what a victory
does do is this: for one, it sends an obvious message to Congress and to other
companies that the Internet matters: it's providing objective information
that, yes, the anti-SOPA forces have some power, and other players might re-
evaluate their current strategy to accomodate that new information.

But beyond that, and more important than that, is that it builds the movement.
A victory sends a signal to people who are anti-SOPA but disenchanted that
there is at least the hope of victory, bringing them back into the fold. It
generates a bunch of news articles providing valuable anti-SOPA publicity,
which is especially valuable since broader public knowledge of SOPA is one of
the things we need most now. And it develops commitment and better engagement
for the movement via showing how each of us as individuals can contribute to
change.

It's not an either-or choice: you can both send letters and move your domains
from GoDaddy.

By the way, if you're reading this and you haven't sent a letter... close out
this window immediately, write a letter, and send it.

~~~
palish
Please don't write a letter. It accomplishes nothing.

We need to call our congressman and _speak_ to whomever is on the line, with
our voices. Not pens or keyboards.

When your congressman asks his staff "What have the public been calling
about?" (which he asks regularly), then there's a good chance that SOPA will
be mentioned.

But only if you _call_ your congressman!

~~~
pingswept
What evidence is there concerning the relative efficacy of emails, paper
letters, and phone calls?

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seigenblues
from speaking to staffers (i live in the DC area). They are generally young
20-somethings whose job it is to answer the phones, tally the e-mails &
letters, and report on it to the congresscritters; they are generally
unanimous on a few points:

1) that the congresspeople care and notice if an issue is getting a lot of
attention from constituents 2) that this is something they usually ask about
_every day_ 3) that phone calls are generally more influential than letters,
which are generally more influential than e-mails -- but it depends on how
each office handles their inbounds.

~~~
Canada
Why not write a letter, send an email, and make a phone call?

~~~
seigenblues
yes, doing all of the above is best :)

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sidww2
While boycotting companies supporting SOPA is important, I feel the excessive
focus on GoDaddy is distracting the community from the important issue of
actually defeating SOPA/PIPA. The tech community really does not have the size
and influence to be able to force even a fifth of the companies to withdraw
their support of SOPA.

The overwhelming majority of the effort should be going to calling/sending
(physical) letters to one's respective representatives, maybe setting up some
sort of a fund to oppose SOPA/PIPA, urging tech companies like Google to spend
more on lobbying (They can and should be spending more to lobby against the
act), etc.

Edit: I was under the incorrect impression that OPEN act would end nonsense
like SOPA/PIPA. Edited comment to reflect that.

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mike-cardwell
What evidence do you have that the number of letters has been negatively
affected by the GoDaddy coverage?

This GoDaddy coverage has been perfect. If anything, _more_ people know about
SOPA than would have done otherwise. If anything, the number of letters being
sent will have increased, not decreased.

~~~
sidww2
I don't mean to imply that the number of letters has decreased. But if the
majority of the community chatter is about boycotting GoDaddy, then that will
decrease the focus on other (much much much more important) parts of the
campaign which could have a negative effect. For instance, people may think
that they've done their part by boycotting GoDaddy.

It also focusses attention only on SOPA when PIPA is almost as bad.

~~~
jczhang
There is a halo effect. Attention on SOPA increases attention on PIPA. Without
the SOPA scandal, this halo effect and increased on attention on PIPA may
never have happened. You can't simply convert emotion from one object to the
other. I think it's better to support things that are in the same direction
than to nitpick the details (eg. pick your battles).

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marze
When they've spent $500k lobbying against, that is when they should be
considered forgiven.

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hadronzoo
According to Namecheap customer service, GoDaddy is blocking whois requests,
forcing whois information to be entered manually. Due to the large number of
recent domain transfers, this is slowing down the transfer rate.

.com domains appear to be blocked, but not .me domains.

~~~
Canada
Does ICANN allow registrars to do that?

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saurik
(Asking some random questions into the aether in the hope that someone
knowledgeable might answer ;P.) So, how does one register "official
congressional support" for something? (As in: how did companies get on this
list in the first place? Is that just a list of entities who have contributed
money to the committee somehow?) Is there a way to register congressional
"dissupport"? (Why is there no equivalent list of "dissupporters" for this
bill? Is it common practice to only list supporters?)

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dagda1
What can we do against ADOBE, Apple, Microsoft and Visa who are also pro SOPA.
When companies start feeling the pain, they will soon withdraw their support.

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wycats
What makes you think Apple and Microsoft are pro-SOPA? They were part of an
industry group that was pro-SOPA until an uproar a few months ago for the
group to pull out.

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georgemcbay
Unfortunately I don't think the Godaddy situation proves much of anything to
other companies because Godaddy is so easy to boycott. Transferring a domain
will cost you some fees, but it is relatively painless, you can get the same
exact service from someone else with ease.

Are the people who turned their back on Godaddy as likely to not buy the next
big Nintendo game if they are Nintendo fans?

I'm pretty skeptical that a godaddy style boycott will work on a company whose
good/service is not so easily replaceable.

See:

[http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2011/11/6e4936...](http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2011/11/6e49368e85bd37eee55b92c4a1e63640.jpg)

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badragon
We should go after Lamar Smith. How do I donate to an opponent or action
committee that will run embarrassing ads questioning his intelligence?

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badragon
Maybe somebody with TV talent should do a kickstarter?

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Blunt
Nothing speakers louder than the dollar. Bitching and moaning really does
nothing compared to the mighty dollar. Fortunately for me I own a small
hosting company with roughly 1500 or so domain names that I will do a bulk
transfer too after the xmas holiday. These are domain names I mainly control
as a consultant for other companies (my clients)... This ought to get
interesting when I begin pulling the trigger. About 6 years ago I did
something similar to move away from NetSol and they attempted to block this;
making it very difficult to close my accounts.

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Sami_Lehtinen
Well. I didn't like GoDaddy in first place anyway. I moved personal and other
domains I administer out.

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RobertKohr
Better than boycotting godaddy, take away their number 1 spot on google. Just
add this link to any websites you control:

<a href="[http://www.namecheap.com>Domain](http://www.namecheap.com>Domain)
Registrar</a>

This will heavily effect their SEO.

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NARKOZ
>You can lie on the internet, but you don't lie to the internet.

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rhizome
SOPA is dead, this story will continue by itself. People who want to move
domains certainly should, but I think it behooves freedom to focus on PIPA
now.

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gasull
You're claiming victory way too soon.

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rhizome
No, I'm not. SOPA failure and existing critiques can be incorporated into PIPA
ones. Focus on PIPA, keep both in the news. The critiques will synergize,
which I don't mean in the dack.com way.

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dagda1
Microsoft and Apple are harder to boycott sadly and both are in favour of
SOPA.

We still need a victory and Godaddy will do for me. Signing petitions is a
useless act.

Can anybody recommend a SOPA safe registrar that I can transfer my domains to?

~~~
VMG
According to my research it isn't quite clear that Microsoft strongly supports
SOPA. They seemed to be indirectly backing it via BSA, but there are some
stories of MS opposing it as well.

Might be a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

~~~
sidww2
They still support PIPA though which is almost as bad.

