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Some good news on the SOPA front: its corporate base of supporters is starting to crumble.
One of the few Internet-based organizations to support SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act (referred to by supporters as the Internet censorship bill), was GoDaddy.com, the domain name registration site that manages over 51 million domain names across the Web. When the coalition opposed to SOPA found out about this, they kicked off a grassroots campaign to pressure GoDaddy, mainly by telling people who have registered domain names with them to find another vendor. This had the intended effect. GoDaddy today renounced its support for SOPA.
Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” currently working its way through U.S. Congress.
“Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation – but we can clearly do better,” Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s newly appointed CEO, said. “It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.”
GoDaddy is not alone. Scores of law firms are requesting their names be removed from the Judiciary Committee’s official list of SOPA supporters. This follows on companies listed by the Chamber of Commerce as supporting SOPA asking to be taken off the list.
The dynamic is clear. Once SOPA (and its Senate counterpart Protecting IP Act, or PIPA) became high-profile among the Internet community, the lazy endorsements from companies and various hangers-on became toxic. And now those supporters are scrambling, hollowing out the actual support for the bill. Suddenly, a bill with “widespread” corporate support doesn’t have much support at all. And remember, the corporate support was the only thing propping up SOPA; it’s not like there’s a grassroots army urging Internet censorship.
This is very good news for the coalition opposing SOPA as we head into markups next year.
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Internet for 99ers survives another assault (not a done deal yet, as PTB in D.C. may still be determined to pass it). This is really good news.
I admit to being pessimistic on this subject. Would love to have been wrong.
I dropped GoDaddy when I found out the owner killed an elephant for sport. GoDaddy can GoKissMyAss. Their withdrawal of support for this insane piece of legislation means absolutely nothing to me. If others find joy in this news, that’s their perspective.
Survival of the internet for 99ers is a BIG deal.
Didn’t know about the elephant kill and definitely don’t approve. But give credit where it is due in larger issue.
So the enemy of my enemy is now my friend? I don’t see it that way. The internet WILL survive, no matter what scum like the owner of GoDaddy does one way or the other. To me, there is no larger issue than how we treat our fellow creatures and residents of planet earth. All animals are equal. But in the case of the elephant versus his shooter, some are definitely more equal than others.
YMMV.
I have no idea what that means. To quote the immortal words of Paul Anka, “Spell It Out!”
It must have dawned on the smartfellas how easy it would be to get framed or set up (easy being an understatement). 99.99% do not understand copyright or infringement.
Inadvertent copyright infringement or plagiarism is still copyright infringement, still plagiarism. But they aren’t piracy or counterfeiting.
There’s no such thing as inadvertent piracy or counterfeiting, but your site can be compromised and attacked to look like it pirated or counterfeited copyright protected material.
My take is that the proposed law would be killed by the Supreme Court (and every lower court).
It’s better to have Congress pass such a stupid law so it can reach the courts, so the nature of freedom on and about the Internet can be made permanent.
As it is, too much digital matter is proprietary and private law (as it evolved since the late 1970′s) still rules.
There’s this thing called teh goggle. YMMV. AKA reasonable people may disagree on priorities.
Also does not imply the conclusion that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Life is more complicated than that.
Link did not work. Here is is http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=YMMV
“Your actual mileage may vary” is car dealership hold harmlessese since EPA mileage scores are based on adding one gallon of fuel in the mpg test and doing the math when the vehicle runs out of gas. Gasoline is heavy and harder to pull or push the more there is.
Didn’t know that.
Used YMMV as a metaphor, but always interested in the science and the political hidden agendas.
GoDaddy.Com CEO Bob Parsons enthusiastically supports torture (DailyKOS, June 20, 2005):
“Dear Bob, I’m glad you’re not in charge.” | MetaFilter.Com | June 20, 2005 9:08 AM
Here‘s a bit more on how Bob Tweeted a video of killing an elephant.
I’ve always wondered who actually runs Bob’s company and if he’s actually ever made money on what he says he sells.
“Senate counterpart Protecting IP Act”
That is incorrect.
S.968 is titled:
Preventing
Real
Online
Threats to
Economic
Creativity and
Theft of
Intellectual
Property
Act of 2011
that is “PROTECT IP Act”
The house bill is H.R. 3261 and is called:
Stop Online Piracy Act
The residents of The Hill call them Pipa and Sopa.
As an aside, not many people know that the
“USA PATRIOT Act” also stands for a phrase:
Uniting and
Strengthening
America by
Providing
Appropriate
Tools
Required to
Intercept and
Obstruct
Terrorism
Act of 2001
GoDaddy is terrible, haven’t used them for years. The ownwers politics and the companies adverts suck. I like gandi.net out of France, much nicer, more secure too.
“Some good news on the SOPA front: its corporate base of supporters is starting to crumble.”
They will fall…. smile :-)