GoDaddy lost 72,354 domains this week. It’s not enough.
Despite a massive Twitter campaign and a blog post that claims “Go Daddy no longer supports SOPA legislation” the company and its CEO have dodged questions about opposing the bill. In essence, they are taking a lesser role by not showing support for the bill. They have not opposed it.
This week, they lost around 72,000 domain registrations. At a yearly discounted rate of $6.99 (most registrations are higher), that’s over half a million dollars per year. It is apparently not enough for them to speak out against the bill.
Everyone from large corporations like Google down to small startups like Oklahoma City Dodge are voicing concern about the legislation. “We are watching this subject very closely and looking at what domain changes will need to be made because of GoDaddy’s support of this legislation,” said Mike Chell.
How many domains is the company willing to lose before they oppose this abomination of legislation? Do they believe that when they “step back and let others take leadership roles” we are going to see it as something other than a “duck and cover” public relations move to try to get out of the spotlight and hope someone else takes the brunt of the attacks while they quietly support the bill?
Are 72,354 domains enough? Not even close. It’s a drop in the bucket. They have anywhere from 15,000 to 40,000 domains added daily. Despite cries from the internet, yesterday was a good day with over 32,000 added. Go Daddy has not felt much pain yet. The “PR nightmare” that many of us in the tech industry perceive is happening to them hasn’t hit their pocketbooks in any real form, yet.
Until the effect is more pronounced, they can afford to deflect questions and let the negative PR pass. More must be done.
Why go after GoDaddy only? There are (were) over 60 companies who openly supported SOPA. If you want to make a stand go after the rest as well. Time Warner being one of them. Makes no sense to protest a single company when there are scads of them involved.
Protesting one is better than none. You have to start somewhere.
All of the Democrat bashers are actually government provocateurs trying to divide and conquer well-intentioned Americans who know that this bill is bad REGARDLESS of who it came from. They know we are too strong to put up with this kind of tyranny if we stick together.
Well said.
Al Gore didn’t mean for the internet to be controlled in this way when he invented it.
I need to see a good alternative to GoDaddy before I move any domains. That’s the real prob.
So let’s see. If you design a better mouse-trap and someone steals the plans and you don’t make any money on your invention, you will bring all the forces of the federal government to bare on the those who stole your product. But if someone creates an intellectual property, you believe it is yours for the taking, and that there should be no protection for the creator of that property? Wow.
only limited protection. not sure where I draw the line but not where Congress wants to draw it.