SOPA And The GoDaddy Flip Flop
GoDaddy.com, the largest ICANN domain name registrar on the Internet, flip flopped quickly last week after customers grew upset of their decision to support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Last week, the Scottsdale, Arizona company was found to be supporting the controversial SOPA. What ensued after customers found out about this was the closing of accounts and moving their domain names to other registrars. Conner Livingston at TechI claims that GoDaddy lost over 72,000 domain names after the incident.
GoDaddy, which has over 51 million websites registered with nearly 10 million customers quickly changed their tune. CEO Warren Adelman would later reverse their decision:
"We're going to step back and let others take leadership roles. As a company that is all about innovation, with our own technology and in support of our customers, Go Daddy is rooted in the idea of First Amendment Rights and believes 100 percent that the Internet is a key engine for our new economy"
Money does indeed talk, especially when its your own customers exiting the doors and it is bleeding out of your pockets.
The problem here is that most website owners are opposed to the SOPA act. We do not want GoDaddy to be the first person who pulls the plug out of the wall when the US government wants to shut down our servers. For web owners, there are concerns about First Amendment rights here and too much control of corporations and government making decisions without due course. Most of us can see how SOPA can be the trojan horse towards censorship, let alone a means to eliminate competition.
No website owner wants to see image blasted on his home page:
For you, dear reader, you need to think about this too. For if you infringe by posting copyrighted work, you can be fined and have jail time even if you made a mistake. Imagine the ramifications if this bill passed. Social networking sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Wordpress, and Myspace where users share links, video, music, and text could be closed down for good. YouTube could also be shut down as well if the company doesn't police it's site well..
What the big media and consumer goods retailers fail to realize is that it is the very buzz from marketing and communication on the Internet that gets people interested in their product. Yes, for if it were not for the Internet, they would be talking through a tin cup to get noticed. Should we all just not talk about you and your products? The Internet is the cheapest form of communication. It also is an engine of free word of mouth marketing.
Just because there are a few rogue individuals out there that abuse the net, shouldn't mean a broad bill should be created allowing the US government to shut down any website just because someone doesn't like the picture, link, video, or music you posted.
I'm in all favor for a bill that gets to the heart of the matter - copyright infringement and commerce of illegal and fake goods. But let's keep it that way and in that line of thinking. The Homeland Security Investigations (ICE) already does a fine job of shutting down illegal websites. But I and many other website owners do not want it stretching any farther than that. We should not be held accountable for content posted by users as the bills propose. The amount of effort and cost in doing so would severely impact not only our enjoyment of running our websites, but also the crippling expenses to hire additional people to monitor it as well.
I can understand that the music recording industry is behind this. For its their assets that are being counterfeited and sold illegally. I can also understand big Hollywood production houses like Sony and Time Warner are behind this bill also. Pretty much anyone with concerns about digital media and branded consumer goods is supporting this bill.
But again, this is a new Digital Age. Old communication methods don't work anymore. Nobody listens to radio as they did. TV commercial spots cost a fortune. Letter by mail is costly. All you have left are social networks, blogs and websites to get your word out. So why penalize those who are not doing it intentionally to harm your business. We are actually helping it.
On the flip side are the opposers of SOPA.Those who rely on digital content from outside sources to drive their business. It is a Who's Who list of Internet business including Google, AOL, Yahoo!, Twitter, Facebook; Arianna Huffington, Craig Newmark, Jimmy Wales, Sergey Brin and others. These are companies and individuals who are creative, innovate and drive the Internet economy.
What is truly bothersome here is that some lawmakers are siding with old media companies who are continually threatened by the Internet. That's what it boils down to. They have been weakened and are clinging to a stale past. Just like Al Bundy trying to remember his old high school football days and can't let go
Rather than move forward, they choose to look backwards.
No, its not about loss in counterfeit or copyright infringement. Those issues can be dealt with by other government agencies already in place and performing that function very well. Its all about industries that have lost their prowess because they failed to innovate to create their own digital future.
About Kerry Kobashi
Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.
