Go Daddy Backtracks on SOPA Support, to Back a Similar Bill In the Future. Maybe.

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Rather than face the hordes of disgruntled customers that would take their business elsewhere because Go Daddy decided to support SOPA, the giant domain registrar decided to completely change its mind on the proposed bill. Apparently Go Daddy would not like to see some prominent clients go to the competition, just because it decided to take a public stance on piracy – apparently the business-unfriendly kind.

SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act is a new proposed law that’s currently being debated in the U.S. Congress and that generated quite a wave of protests from public personas, companies and lots of regular Janes and Joes. Sure, everyone wants to fight piracy, including Go Daddy and some of the companies that are fighting against the bill right now, but they don’t want SOPA to pass. Why? Because it would cripple the Internet, as it is known now, with the good and the bad, at least in the U.S. but also in other markets – see the infographic below that was published earlier this month by BusinessInsurance.org (some of the companies mentioned in it may have changed their stance on SOPA in the mean time).

Wikipedia is one of the sites that oppose SOPA and it’s also a company that decided to move all its servers from Go Daddy, as a direct result of the latter’s decision to initially support SOPA. Since then others made similar threats, which apparently worked. Go Daddy issued a press release to clarify its new stance on SOPA today, two days before Christmas, and it did add that it could support similar bills in the future, but only if customers agree. Here are some of the statements released by Go Daddy today:

“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.”

“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,” said Adelman.

The next SOPA hearings are scheduled for January, and it’s certainly interesting to see what happens next. In the mean time let’s hear what you think of it in the comments section below, are you also moving away from GoDaddy?

Infographic via BusinessInsurance.org