Maxwell sez, "Following GoDaddy's announcement backing the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, many customers have started to move their domains to other hosts. I guess that throwing your customers to the wolves isn't a good business tactic." For the record, I use Hover for all my domains and swear by 'em.

  • http://twitter.com/mosesoperandi Moses Wolfenstein

    I’d been meaning to move my hosting from GoDaddy ever since the Parsons elephant incident. After this I finally transferred over to Namecheap earlier today.

    • tylerkaraszewski

      I moved all my domains to tucows when I heard about the elephant hunting incident. I have no protest business left to move away from them.

  • peterblue11

    cory u seen the godaddy ads on the london tube? enough reason already to switch….

  • manchest

    All my domains were switched to Namecheap following the elephant killing debacle. It would be interesting to see what kind of domains are staying with the company. Regret giving them my business.

    • ahecht

      I just saw that Namecheap is offering $2 off domain transfers if you use the coupon code SOPASucks

      That alone might make me transfer to them.

    • petsounds

      I’ve used Namecheap for many years. I originally chose them because their TOS states explicitly that you own the domain, and they only own the database record. Never had a problem. Great service. And as far as I know, their CEO doesn’t hunt elephants.

  • Cameron Johnson

    Mark Jeftovic, CEO of EasyDns.com, has an interesting blog post about this:

    blog.easydns.org/2011/12/22/how-sopa-will-destroy-the-internet/

    Incidentally, this is the guy you want managing your domains in this environment, as he takes his customers’ rights very seriously.

    • http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin

      Please don’t use url-shorteners.

      • Cameron Johnson

        Sorry Marja…

  • tyrsalvia

    Thanks for linking this here. I have been unimpressed with GoDaddy’s douchebaggery for some time now, and this has provided the necessary kick in the pants to overcome my laziness about transferring to a registrar that is less ethically compromised. 

  • waetherman

    I’ve been a GoDaddy customer for years to the tune of a couple hundred a year, probably. I appreciate the support, the prices are decent and overall it’s a pretty good deal. But knowing that the company is using my money to support policies that are contrary to an open Internet, as well as the owner being a general prick, I think it’s time that I moved my business elsewhere and stopped recommending them to friends. Gone daddy, gone.

  • http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

    I switched from GoDaddy to Dreamhost a few years ago, and couldn’t be happier. My main complaint was actually their byzantine interface, as Parsons’ douchebaggery was only becoming well known at that point in time.

  • MollyMaguire

    I was turned off from the very first GoDaddy tv ad I ever saw years ago.

  • Guest

    GoDaddy has always been rotten to the core. Their domain reg system has been demonstrated time and again to purchase sitenames following user searches so that GoDaddy can sell them to the very people who used their search engine to query availability. They’re owned by the last of the great asshole imperialists who thinks that nothing in this world is cooler than shooting elephants and posting pictures of it online.

    They should have been boycotted years ago.

    • Spam Nolikey

      Very interesting, I never heard of GoDaddy buying domains after people search BUT always assumed this could be very plausible. Can you please provide some specific reference links? In the meantime, I will Google now…Thanks.

      P.S. If we’ve learned anything after all these years regarding domains, etc: intentional Domain Squatting should be banned after X amount of inactivity to repeat offenders and is the most putrid unethical online business practice–far deeper on a global scale if you *truly* think about it.

  • http://www.fark.com/ Two Wolves

    I resent the implied profiling.

  • Brian Flowers

    Anyone using GoDaddy: Switch to Gandi.net — GREAT registrar, no nonsense, easy to use, great customer support…I can’t recommend them more strongly.

    Registered a domain once on GoDaddy for a friend — the entire process was the most obnoxious thing I’ve ever gone thorough. I can’t understand how they’re so popular. Gandi is so much better.

  • http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

    I mean, if the misogyny of the company wasn’t enough for you.  I am not surprised– that sort of “Yeehaw ‘Murica!” patriotism is patently against the ideology of the American Experiment.

  • SoItBegins

    May I recommend 000domains? They’re a bit more expensive than GoDaddy and others, but their service is GREAT.

  • ahwoo

    I’ve got a lot of money invested in GoDaddy domains and hosting. What is a painless way to switch without losing my moneytime investment. I think this should be its own Boing Boing post perhaps…kinda like a liifehacker article.

    • Spam Nolikey

      If you switch you’re obviously gonna lose your time investment. But you should just call the new registrar, tell them the large scale order of your transfer and since they want your business they will cut you some kind of deal. Not rocket science. Just try.

  • http://www.taborcg.com/ McKinley H. Tabor

    This is not new. Back in 2008 and 2009 there was a bit of controversy involving Godaddy cooperating with Government seizures of domain names without judicial oversight. I’m guessing it was a prototype program for the current (and perhaps illegal) domain seizures by ICE and CBP.

    There was a site that chronicled all of this called “nodaddy.com” which now seems to be defunct. 

    In response to this, my company moved all our client domain’s off of GoDaddy in early 2009. It was at the time around $1500 per year. We migrated the domains over the course of 6 months. At the very tail end of the migration we got a phone call from a customer support rep asking we had chosen to leave. We were very open about our objection to Godaddy’s cooperation with law enforcement in actions we felt were a violation of both their EULA and federal law. 

    Godaddy’s support for SOPA is not surprising. I would venture to guess that they have exposed themselves to the possibility of numerous lawsuits over the years by their cooperation with ICE and while I have not read the current text of SOAP, I would expect there to be some mannor of retroactive civil immunity for companies who have aided government censorship pior to passage of the bill.

    • Mark Jeftovic

      nodaddy.com was bought by Godaddy (shortly after the private equity deal was announced) … and duly shut down.

  • http://twitter.com/iWantMyName iWantMyName

    The outpouring of sentiment in light of SOPA supporter revelations has been mind boggling. 2011 showed that ordinary citizens can move mountains with organised protest. SOPA potentially impacts on the very freedoms that we hold dear as Internet users. Viva la Revolucion!

  • Cameron Huff

    Crap, if I had known that stuff before, I never would have moved my domain over to them a few months ago.  I’ll have to look into these other places since I just need a place to handle the DNS for my domain and not much else.

  • http://www.workitywork.com/ Ashli Norton

    Elephant killing, sexist ads, SOPA support, annoying upselling, spammy linking techniques, and no green options = NO GODADDY for me.

    I now use Pairnic (green and ethical) and HostGator (green + cheaper).

  • costeau

    From GoDaddy’s own blog:
    “Although we believe that the DMCA works well in some respects, its remedies are limited in that it does not address trademark infringement, nor does it offer a mechanism to bring enforcement actions against illegal foreign-based sites.”

    Being a US company does not inherently give someone the legal powers to do that. If the rights holders are too lazy to hire local lawyers and initiate legal proceedings against the offender in the country where the offender is alleged to have committed the crime, then that is their own problem.

  • Reetus

    I use DynaDot.com for all my domains.

  • AirPillo

    To be fair, most of GoDaddy’s customers probably spend their entire experience with the company sitting on the fence about whether to go elsewhere.

    It doesn’t really take much of a reason to convince droves of people to stop doing business with a terrible company.

  • traalfaz

    I almost regret HAVING moved during the elephant incident, so I can’t move again.
    If anyone is using GoDaddy hosting, I can heartily recommend DreamHost.  Yeah, it’s $120/year but it’s basically unlimited everything.  Not affiliated, just a happy customer, and VERY happy to be gone from GoDaddy.  With SOPA support I wouldn’t go back to them if they gave me dedicated servers for free.

  • cherry shiva

    I use NameCheap, and they have come out against SOPA:

    http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/22/we-say-no-to-sopa/

  • Zig

    Would never have used Go Daddy before after the things I have heard about them. And that was before this or even the elephant killing.

    I use Joker.com. Was told of them by a friend back in 2000 or so I think.

    Anyway, these days as a US citizen, I am kinda reassured that my domains are registered off shore.

  • http://profiles.google.com/joel.moore Joel Moore

    I can’t believe this is what it takes to get people to abandon GoDaddy.  They were always shit.

  • http://twitter.com/FableCreative_ Chrissy Davey

    Wow, I’m so thankful this came to light today – I was shopping around just this morning for hosting options. GoDaddy was one of them… not anymore. Scary.

  • Paul

    Can anyone recommend a good UK based registrar?  I’d quite like my domains to have as little to do with the US as possible, what with all the clear anti-tech sentiment in US politics at the moment.

    • EH

      Gandi is in France, Joker.com, who I like, is in Germany. Basically, I’m OK with “anywhere but the US, UK and probably Australia.” Gandi also has good anon features, if you’re into that kind of thing.

    • Marion McNealy

      Heart Internet is in the UK, and we’ve had excellent business hosting service from them.

    • CaptainPedge

      I use 1and1.co.uk and have never had any cause to complain

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KNOACRPAN2UUYWBB7GPGHWRGXA jan

    Autodesk, makers of Maya, 3d studio max and AutoCAD are sponsors of SOPA as well. Very hard to take your business away from them though.
    edit: duh, the BSA is in on this so Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, McAfee, Dell and Symantec are sponsoring this as well. Very hard to vote with your money in a corporate giants world

  • http://obsidian.kokolis.net Chloramphenicol

    I had not heard of the douchebaggery related to hunting elephants before, but that coupled with support for SOPA is enough to make me move.  Good thing my domain needed to be renewed anyway…  Consider me a customer of NameCheap now.

  • Marco Antonio Morales

    I have my domains AND hosting with them… NameCheap only handles the domains. Where should I move my hosting? (english speaking preferred, and what about non-US alternatives?)

    • Mag 7ue

      I’ve used Inmotionhosting.com for years. Good prices, US-based (and very good) support. 

  • http://www.gweilosguide.com/ Eric S.

    Well, it looks like I have a couple of sites to move myself!  Thanks to Boing Boing for the post, and I appreciate the recommendations of customer-rights-aware hosts that I see in this thread so far.  I’m bookmarking this thread to choose a new host for my sites, so keep the recommendations coming!

  • Cowicide

    I hope Godaddy goes out of business because of this.

  • SpaceBeers

    Can someone explain the “elephant incident” for me please? It sounds amazing.

  • Geoduck

    The GoDaddy CEO went to Africa and shot an elephant, pretty much because he felt like it.

  • http://twitter.com/flordelapalabra Tlahtolli

    WikiPedia is registered with GoDaddy:  http://who.is/whois/wikipedia.org/

  • Guest

    Transferred all my domains from GoDaddy today. I hope losing my business was worth it to them! =P

  • Doug Black

    They’ve now backed down.  Let’s hope the other corporate sponsors of SOPA feel the same heat.