@robpeck Hi Rob.  I don’t agree with GoDaddy’s stance of supporting the bill, but I find it funny that they really can’t do anything right at this point.  People were angry that they supported the bill, they were angry that GoDaddy didn’t change their minds when it was clearly an unpopular bill, and then they were angry that GoDaddy ended up changing their minds.  So essentially, they can’t win whether they stand for what they believe in (right or wrong) or whether they agree with their customers.  

Oddly enough, I don’t remember any of the other hosting companies jumping on board to be against SOPA until they realized that GoDaddy was getting bashed to be on board with it.  Just like the companies that jumped on board to save the elephants after the former GoDaddy CEO did what he did. 

There’s a full list of companies supporting SOPA (and more about it) in this post - http://dempseymarketing.com/journal/sopa-voting-with-your-wallet/.  If everyone is going to run from GoDaddy in light of this, they should also stop watching ABC, CBS, & ESPN, not travel to Disney parks, toss L’Oreal beauty products, not go to any MLB games, return any gifts from Tiffany, stop using Visa cards, and find other ways to boycott the rest of the supporters.  

Rick and Kristi, thanks for bringing this up. I got a Facebook reposting from a friend in the Republic of Georgia (former Soviet Union country) and was quite concerned about the worldwide uninformed and frenzied backlash to even the thought of a business trying to protect their copyrighted works on the internet, much less big governments.

My initial reaction was that the bill, as it stands, is an unenforceable non-issue because of its well-known “vagueness.” It’s this vagueness that ensures that it will never stand up in court… unconstitutional and all that.

So when the masses picked GoDaddy to attack, I wondered who and what was really behind that. I also wondered who GoDaddy will take to court to recoup their mass losses from. Kristi, when I jumped to the link you provided and read the article, I found my answer:

“If you have domains hosted on GoDaddy I suggest you transfer them to a non-SOPA supporting company. I host a number of domains with my friends and clients Anthony and Darrin Eden on their site – DNSimple - and highly suggest their DNS service. As the name implies, it’s super easy to use and the support they provide is second to none. They’ve taken a firm stance on SOPA, and offer domain transfers from GoDaddy at cost.”
Read more: http://dempseymarketing.com/journal/sopa-voting-with-your-wallet/#ixzz1hj4YICrM
 
I’m sure the author, and perhaps Anthony and Darrin Eden, will be getting a friendly letter from a GoDaddy attorney pretty soon now. If Monsanto can go after corn farmers for violating their pattens when the wind blows their legally protected seeds into the field of a neighbor’s farm and win injunction’s and damages in court, then GoDaddy clearly has a just case against this author, Anthony and Darrin. Not saying it sits well with most people’s sense of ethics, just saying that our laws are set up to prevent mob rule, stirred up by identifiable ringleaders, from financially ruining their competitors. It’s called anti-trust.

I also think most people who don’t like GoDaddy and jumped on that bandwagon are not going to like the lessons they may learn about how GoDaddy turns the tables on those ringleaders. It’s kind of ironic, really. People are angry because they don’t want their alleged free speech on the internet blocked by the government in the gov’s effort to help protect ALL businesses, not realizing that riling up the masses to invoke their free speech rights against one business while profiting that business’ competitors takes it out of the free speech arena and clearing into the anti-trust venue.

Things are starting to get eerily interesting…. but no matter what happens next, I predict GoDaddy will come out the winner on this one. The public, however, will lose no matter which side or which bill wins.

@kristi-hines
Your comments were spot on about companies “finding religion” when the winds of the marketplace change
The more serious point to ponder is the sentiment that created SOPA because of the gradual erosion of our rights and who controls content.

Somehow I managed to miss all of this the past few days, probably because of Christmas. Well now I’m seeing this and I’m thinking ugh…cause I have several websites, including my main businesses site, all hosted on GoDaddy. And while I have been planning to move to HostGator or somewhere similar for no other reason that GoDaddy’s platform makes me crazy at times, my plan was not to do so until perhaps February. Wonder if this will all blow over or are people really upset about this and seriously refusing to do business with a company that is hosted there?