SOPA supporters facing boycotts, thanks to Reddit

By: Chenda Ngak
Topics: Tech Talk

(Credit: GoDaddy.com)

(CBS) - Domain registrar Go Daddy faced a week of users jumping ship after members of the online community Reddit attacked the company for its support of Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

On Dec. 22, Reddit user selfprodigy declared on a forum thread that he (or she) would be transferring 51 personal domains to a different registrar to protest Go Daddy's support of SOPA.

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The boycott proposed moving domains on Dec. 29 as a day of protest, but the topic gained so much interest that Go Daddy has already experienced a mass exodus. According to the Mac Observer, the registrar has lost over 72,000 domains.

"I am proud to announce that the Wikipedia domain names will move away from GoDaddy. Their position on #sopa is unacceptable to us," Wikipedia's founder Jimmy Whales declared on Twitter a day after Reddit users posted a thread asking for the company's support.

Ben Huh, who owns sites like I Can Haz Cheezburger and FAIL blog, announced the company would pull over 1,000 domains from Go Daddy via Twitter.

On Dec. 23 Go Daddy announce d they would be changing their position on SOPA, but there hasn't been much meat to that claim. A good question to ask is why would a domain registrar support a bill that might hurt its own business.

Talking Points Memo report s that Go Daddy is exempt from SOPA. An amendment submitted by House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) "excluded certain operators of sub-domains, such as GoDaddy.com, from being subject to shutdowns under SOPA."

The battle over the bill continues and now Reddit users are toying with other companies to boycott - among them Nintendo and Electronic Arts.

Aside from domain registration, Go Daddy is known for overtly sexual advertisements that feature scantily clad women. Controversy also surrounds the company because of a graphic video post by the company's chief executive officer Bob Parsons of an elephant killing and African villagers swarming the dead animal for meat.

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by sharkboy234 December 27, 2011 2:27 PM EST: get out to protest now tell democrats to block the votes and filibuster the house and senate fight against s.o.p.a. now they should invent a child internet safety software to keep kids off the internet internet safety software should be turned on to keep kids off the internet you tube users should get out to protest and go against s.o.p.a. Peta vs s.o.p.a. you tube vs s.o.p.a. keep the internet debut the child internet safety software with max coverage! repeal s.o.p.a. just say no to japan!; Reply to this comment


by itemforty December 27, 2011 12:12 PM EST: Important to note that GoDaddy laughed at the initial attempts to boycott in a release, but once it became a bigger deal than they anticipated, they lied about retracting their support.
Also, GoDaddy has been making it harder and harder to move domains:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57348511-281/godaddy-accused-of-interfering-with-anti-sopa-exodus/

http://imgur.com/2PrR1; Reply to this comment


by 872307 December 27, 2011 11:44 AM EST: SOPA is a slippery-slope and is about 15 years over due. If they wanted regulations like this they should have created them earlier. The internet is a tangled web, adding these regulations now is going to be costly and useless.

The media uses the general population to promote things. Some music companies leak their own tracks to the pirate world to get press and buzz going. This bill will not only hurt free speech but large media companies as well. If we are prevented from posting anything referring to any media company's material then they are going to lose a lot of free press. If this bill wasn't written by a bunch of people who have literally no idea how modern marketing works then maybe it would make more sense. All the corporations that are sponsoring this nonsense are going to be in a world of hurt when they realize the mess they have created for themselves.

Not to mention, if the government can control what sites we are allowed to go to what is to stop them from controlling sites they just don't agree with. We live in the United States not the People's Republic of China. Free Speech comes into question especially based on the extremely general wording of the bill that could encompass any site the government wanted it to. It disturbs me that this is even being considered.; Reply to this comment

by ZPeirce December 27, 2011 10:42 AM EST

When are there ever legitimate reasons for circumventing DRM? I say this as genuine curiosity and not out of a need to start an uproar.

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by red1530 December 27, 2011 11:13 AM EST: A few that I can think of are to make a back up (DVD/Blu-Ray to computer file) and change the format of an audio or video file (.wma to .mp3).


by scallywagy December 26, 2011 8:33 PM EST: What makes the impending legislation interesting is the fact that Go Daddy will be exempted from having to obey its stipulations, effectively giving it free reign and the proxy to continue its role as a server to large media outlets who stand to take market share from independent media agencies and re assert their dominance from cable, print media and if they play their cards right the internet...the final holy grail and until now the dominion of indie content providers.

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/12/sopa-backlash-sends-thousands-of-web-masters-leaving-go-daddy-whilst-the-main-stream-media-conspicuously-looks-the-other-way/; Reply to this comment

by Morgan Theron December 26, 2011 2:10 PM EST

So let me get this straight, CBS supports SOPA and its been lobbying hard for it. What gets me about this is, CBS Distributes software like Limewire, Kazaa and other P2P Programs via CNET, DZnet and a few other places as well, it also provides the Software to remove the "Copyright Protections from Software, DVD, Blueray and MP3s so basically if you want to get technical about it or even legal about it CBS fosters the crime of Online Piracy. So if Congress really wants to pass SOPA, I suggest you look long and hard at the people providing the Software and then look at the list of those supporting SOPA, by now you should see that the ones that are supporting it are the ones that caused the Online Piracy in the first place, So the question is, when to we get too see the trials of the head of CBS, AOL, MSN, Timewarner, RIAA, the list goes on and its all documented and web archived, so unless Congress completely turns off the internet inside the USA people can find it, but then there is this other thing you have too think about as well, even if you pull the plug inside the USA, other nations can still access it.......something too think about.....

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by infernoskating December 27, 2011 1:03 AM EST: "CBS fosters the crime of Online Piracy." - Yeah as much as Ford, GM, and Dodge foster crime when a thief uses one of their vehicles to make a get-away. Just because a tool can be used to commit a crime does not mean it's intent was to used as such.

There are legitimate reasons for using P2P networks and circumventing DRM.