by Chris Woodward
As we all know by now, people don’t like SOPA. It was big news recently when domain registrar giant GoDaddy.com voiced their support of the legislative bill, only to flip-flop days later. For some it was too little too late and many vowed to boycott GoDaddy and transfer their domains elsewhere. This movement gained traction online and GoDaddy lost over 25,000 domains to NameCheap on “Ditch GoDaddy Day”. While something tells me GoDaddy simply sneezed at this, it was by far the most notable protest of a company in support of the SOPA bill. But, if people are so upset with GoDaddy because they voiced their support for SOPA, why stop there? There are many other companies that are on the SOPA support list, many of which we’ve all heard of. Will people boycott these companies as well? We shall see…but first, let me show you what a day in your life would look like if you decided to boycott all SOPA supporters…
You start your day by going to the bank and pull all of your money out, you are boycotting the American Bankers Association.
You hate carrying a lot of cash, and would probably just use your credit cards, but you are boycotting VISA and Master Card.
What to do? What to do? How about a movie? Nope, you are boycotting the Motion Picture Association of America and the Screen Actors Guild.
Fine, forget a movie. You go home to watch a little TV. You love shows on ABC, NBC, and CBS…but you are boycotting them.
How about the news? You’re boycotting the News Corporation.
Lets see what’s on cable…oh wait, you are boycotting Time Warner, whose subsidiaries include New Line Cinema, HBO, TBS, The CW Television Network, Warner Bros., Kids’ WB, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim, CNN, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Castle Rock Entertainment.
Man, that’s too much to keep track of. Ok, forget TV, you’ll just read a magazine. Nope, you’re boycotting The Association of Magazine Media.
Alright, it’s a little bit childish, but if you can’t read a magazine you’ll bring out one of your guilty pleasures, a comic book. Oh crap, you’re boycotting Marvel Entertainment.
Ya know, it’s time to get up off the couch anyways. Time to work out and shed a few pounds. Shoot, you’re boycotting Beachbody LLC, the makers of your P90x videos.
Wow the day is getting frustrating, not much to do…ok ok your daughter needs help with her homework. This will certainly help pass the time. Geez, her school books are published by Scholastic, Inc. and McGraw-Hill, both of who you are boycotting. Sorry kid.
It’s been a while since you did something good. Time to make your annual donation to the Fraternal Order of Police, well you would if you weren’t boycotting them.
It’s been a while since you downloaded some good music. Hmm, better check who your favorite artists are signed with, because you’re boycotting Universal Music, Sony, Warner, and MCA Records.
How about some video games? Nope, boycotting the Entertainment Software Association.
Oh finally, Monday Night Football…finally something to cure your insanity. But you’re boycotting the NFL.
No football?! Oh man, how miserable.You’ll just catch the highlights later. Well you would if you weren’t boycotting ESPN.
Can’t wait til baseball season then. Too bad you’re boycotting Major League Baseball.
Ugh. Well, at least you have your monthly fights to watch…that is, if you weren’t boycotting UFC.
Ok, this is starting to cause a lot of stress. Time to relieve some stress, you convince your wife for a little hanky-panky. She’s not looking too fabulous? You made her boycott her makeup companies Revlon, L’Oreal, and Estée Lauder.
You know what will get you going though. A couple little blue pills to rev your engine. Going to be hard to do that considering you’re boycotting Pfizer. Sorry big boy.
What a total waste of a day…You know what you’ll do? Transfer your domains away from GoDaddy. That’ll make you feel better.
And that isn’t even close to all the companies that support SOPA. View the entire list here.
I am in no way defending GoDaddy for their initial support for SOPA nor am I supporting the bill either. This was just a fun little way to point out that as much as people love to complain, if they really took action against all the companies that support SOPA as they did against GoDaddy, there might not be much to do in their lives. There are some HUGE companies that have their hands in every corner of the media, banking , and entertainment industries that do support the bill and it’s interesting none of them have received the same heat as GoDaddy. I encourage someone to boycott all of the companies that support SOPA and let me know how that goes. I’m willing to bet it gets old pretty quick and the life conveniences these companies provide outweigh your need to be heard in the long run.
I left GoDaddy a long time ago due to their irritable up-selling and slow interface. SOPA was just icing on the top.
Hi Shane,
I think if a person was able to ‘boycott’ 50% – 75%+ these companies and services at least for say two weeks before and after these bills come up for discussion and/or vote…imagine the things in life they could discover and re-discover and how much more ‘real quality’ of time they would find themselves with…to do things that really matter.
Yes, you can go without, movies, credit cards, sports, news, music, movies and whatever services and products and services the companies above provide for at least a few weeks.
The ‘Godaddy boycott’ served its purpose, I think, as it was really not so much for transferring domains away from them…but, to put a ‘spot light’ on these important issues that these bills raise. Which it did, pretty effectively.
It did get ‘Godaddy’ to change its public view on this, although I do not think in private that they have changed at all.
I think a lot of these company’s still do not understand just what the unattended or attended consequence’s ( depending on your perspective, and agenda) these two bills could have, if passed into law.
It still makes no sense at all to me for example… why Visa & Mastercard are supporting this bill, as on the surface it is just going to cost them money and time in answering and responding to subpoenas for records and information etc… everyday.
Anyway,
As long as the top 20 or so real online company’s stay very serious about this down the stretch, I think it will go a long way in defeating these two bills.
The real shame of this whole thing, is that the domain name industry in general and domain name registrars and domain parking services specifically have been so deftly silent and oh so slow to recognize this serious threat to Internet and to their business’s…it is almost beyond belief.
Most did not not come out of the closet, until this Godaddy issue came to light and the majority have not come out at all.
I mean where had they all been from last spring to Nov?
Where are they now?
As Godaddy sent their letter of support for SOPA to congress back in early Nov… did a any domain registrar or domain parking company send in a ‘letter’ of non-support of SOPA or Protect IP to congress back when it counted? No
Have they done so, since the Godaddy issue was brought to light? I have not have heard of any.
Why is it that, no one in the domain industry has had someone at any of the hearings?
If they do not think, this is not going to have a major impact on them and their clients…they all have their heads in the sand…still.
Best as always,
‘D’
Dan,
I appreciate the comment and insight. I certainly realize why GoDaddy was protested or boycotted and I’m not saying I disagree with peoples decision to do so. You are right, it certainly created a level of awareness that did not exist prior. I just thought it was interesting that GoDaddy has taken the most blame, maybe because they are an internet company and this is an internet related bill. I guess my main purpose for writing this was it was a light-hearted way to point out that it is a much much bigger issue than just GoDaddy. Boycotting GoDaddy certainly raised a lot of publicity but if individuals don’t do the same with the other companies how will they get the message? It’s easy to transfer a domain away, but not watch an NFL playoff game? or download a song? or pick up a book? This issue goes far beyond GoDaddy and the companies that support the bill are involved in most peoples every day lives. I know that several companies jumped ship without the media blowing it up after they saw the backlash GoDaddy received…but the only way to get the message across to the remaining supporters is to send the same message by moving your business away or boycotting their services….the problem with this, as we see, is it would be very difficult to do.
Hi Dan , why no one acted in November back then boggled my mind also.
But as with the Bob Parson shooting safari , the first time no one cared. Second time ooops.
I remember that i talked to some of my USA based friends and they no idea about SOPA, IP-Protect . Those who looked it up thought it was actually a good thing.
In october i met some of them again.. There was some change , they where concerned how it could impact their business. ….
Perhaps back in november was just a lil too early and the more media attention it got was just fueling the fire up till the point went boo…..viral 😉
@ Chris… I agree with all your points.
But I think the groups like: Fight For The Future & Demand Progress ~ could and should try and set up a email campaign and a landing page for people to send emails and make calls to most of the companies sighted above. Just like they have done for people to call and email their Senators & Congress members.
Since both these bills look like they are going to come up for discussion and/or vote in committees in January, they could do this:
I would ‘target’ just the ‘NFL’ & Visa/Mastercard, as the NFL will be on everyone’s radar for the next month, and I am quite sure both Visa & Mastercard will be sponsors of the ‘Super Bowl’ and advertisers during the game, both having at min 1 Super Bowl ad.
You would not have to ‘threaten or try and do a boycott…just bombard them with emails and phone calls…all the way up to the ‘Super Bowl’.
Believe me it would get some huge media exposure. As of right now, most people still do not have a real good idea or grasp what these ‘bills’ are all about…most now, likely think it just has to do with domain names ;)…which may be as bad as not knowing anything about it at all.
If they did this…it would really go ‘viral’ to the masses.
In fact, when I get done with this post, I am going to email this part of it to the two org’s mentioned above.
I think it is a great opportunity to really bring this to light…for most of America & the world for that matter, to see and to get some sort of real understanding of what is going on.
___
@ theo
Your right Theo 😉
It is almost embarrassing…that almost the foremost ‘experts’ on the subject is “Torrent Freak” in the U.K.
They are, because they been following this from the start and maybe more importantly they been following “Operation In Our Sites” as they have been seizing domains & websites, in and outside the US for more than a year.
This, IMO is where we really have to start: No new laws, and a repeal of the ‘Pro-IP Act of 2008’ or at least a challenge to what powers it does or does not give to the ‘Ip Czar and ‘HLS/ICE’, as it relates to seizing domains/websites.
Anyway…
Nice post ‘Shane’ and very good comments on this 😉
Peace!
‘D’