Did Go Daddy SOPA boycott work?

By: CBS News Staff
Topics: Tech Talk

GoDaddy Girl Danica Patrick

(Credit: GoDaddy.com)

(CBS) - Was the boycott of domain-registration site GoDaddy for its pro-SOPA stance a success?

According to CNET, GoDaddy has not just backed down from its pro-SOPA stance, but is now saying it actively opposes the bill. "GoDaddy opposes SOPA," Warren Adelman, the company's chief executive, said Thursday.

The comments followed increasing pressure on the registrar for initially supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act - due for a committee vote in the House next month - and its sister bill the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate.

Users of the Reddit community drew attention to the site's support of the bills and suggested moving domains registered with GoDaddy to another company. Wikipedia and others announced that they would be transferring their domains from GoDaddy.

"We have observed a spike in domain name transfers," Adelman said in a statement, according to TechCrunch, "which are running above normal rates and which we attribute to GoDaddy's prior support for SOPA, which was reversed."

So: mission accomplished? Mostly.

Reddit users had also declared that Thursday would be the day to move domains, but according to Techdirt, the day was a bust, and GoDaddy actually ended yesterday up, with "20,748 more domains at the end of the day than the beginning." Techdirt does go on to say, however, that as the push to swap registrars began a week earlier, the bulk of those transfers could have occurred before Thursday.

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