SOPA must die!

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Imagine if you were able to genetically combine Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Darth Vader and Barbara Streisand into one horrifically terrifying being. Now imagine that being is actually a piece of proposed legislature — the terrifying creation in your midst would then be the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which is currently being considered by the House.

 

SOPA, aka H.R. 3261 is a bill right now in the House sponsored by R-TX Lamar Smith. It’s not just any bill though, it’s a bill that would allow the USDOJ, RIAA, MPAA and anyone else who lobbies for the entertainment industry to effectively censor the internet to suit their needs.

 

James Allworth recently wrote “Is this really what we want to do to the internet? Shut it down every time it doesn’t fit someone’s business model?” and I couldn’t agree more. Censorship is a slippery slope. Not only that but it also creates an absurd amount of bureaucratic busy work. Here at HostGator we already spend a HUGE amount of time answering DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) requests. If we allow our representatives to begin deciding what is and what isn’t ok for you to view on the internet then where will it end?

 

The bill itself is absurdly broad, creates a ton of liability for small to mid size e-commerce based businesses and will serve to stifle the tech industry in order to cater to lobbying groups paid by companies who refuse to adapt to a world in which free information is king (and almost as unstoppable as a force of nature).

 

A couple months back Godaddy CEO Bob Parsons decided to head to africa to help out the good african citizens by murdering elephants (pesky elephants!). They received so much hate in response to that you’d think they would take a more neutral tact in their views going forward. NOPE! Today Godaddy came out in support of SOPA (which is mind blowing to us as we’re both in the same sector) and they’re receiving a good amount of (well deserved) lashback:

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/nmnie/godaddy_supports_sopa_im_transferring_51_domains/

 

We here at HostGator support a free internet. An Internet in which free information and unhindered distribution of said information is an unalienable human right. Do the same, contact your representative and tell them to vote NO on SOPA.

 

50% off Shared / Reseller / VPS first month. Coupon code: NOSOPA

69 thoughts on “SOPA must die!”

  3. Thank you! We are already paying for internet services to our homes. With so many fees it should not limit us to information!

  4. A tangentially related question: has HostGator ever considered opening a Canadian data centre? As a long-time HostGator customer based in Canada, I would love to be able to move my VPS instance to a country without ICE, the DMCA, or the spectre of SOPA, while being able to remain with HostGator. I’m sure many of your other international customers would agree!

    1. I’m in the US with US related sites and need to have my sites here. DMCA has been enough to take care of infringing sites for years, SOPA and PIPA are not what we want. Our sites are public records related and that’s a place where everyone can walk a fine line between “fair use” and “infringment”.

    2. The problem with that is that Hostgator is a US based company, therefore any laws that apply to HG in the US would apply to their hostings in other countries.

  6. The RIAA got caught pirating copy righted content..in their own office. Why do we need our government in our entertainment affairs? Why are they defending these companies who are complaining about these issues, yet they still rake in billions of dollars a year, but it’s not enough for them. This bill is fueled by nothing but greed, and a balance of power. The government is defending those businesses who assist them in their own campaigns. This is digital oppression, and communism, and censorship. Otherwise you can believe an army of freedom fighters with their keyboards will revolt.

  10. I wish all these people and politicians (who don’t always seem like they are “real” people) would “Get a LIfe!”

  12. What about a deal for domain transfers? If you do that, I might just bring a bunch over. Message me @shellykramer on Twitter if so.

  13. I have never been a big fan of you Hostgator, to be honest… but I really look up to you for supporting the Anti-SOPA campaign!

  14. I think Barbara was thrown in to say they are putting all that into a “pretty” looking paper but with sinister plans.

  15. That has to be something wrong in the head for godaddy to support this, im glad hostgattor is not supporting it!

  17. Can we get some domain transfer discounts as well please? I’m already a HostGator customer for hosting, but my domains are at GoDaddy and I won’t stand to have them defending this blasted legislation. Cheers!

  18. Hey guys, I’m new to the affiliate program and I just joined with Host gator, I’ve been reading about this SOPA and it doesn’t sound good, most of the time politics isn’t either, well anyway I just want to say that I’m going national with my website and I hope it does some good unlike washington, dc.

  19. I love Shared Hosting and your Dedicated Servers, not so much your VPS. Where my dislike for that is made up is that HG has one of the best customer service base I have ever dealt with (that goes for just about everywhere). Avoid the US, claim land elsewhere, keep HG fans happy. -Splendid Angst

  20. Good job HostGator

    Honestly though, I don’t see this bill passing. There’s just no way, especially at a time when lawmakers are talking all about jobs and all SOPA would do is kill jobs.

    1. I contacted my congressmen and senators. All three of them supported SOPA. It could pass. Contact your representative to see where they stand.

  24. I’ve been with HG for almost a decade now and I couldn’t be any more happy seeing this response. As for the GD, I’m leaving them by the end of the year, whatever their final decision on SOPA may be. I just cannot stand by the company which supports SOPA or doesn’t just because of the pressure. It has also become apparent that GD cares very little about the opinions of concerned customers through their responses which equal to “talk to the hand”. As someone who stands against SOPA or any similar bill, as well as a redditor, I really do hope that the recent events stated on reddit will result very negatively for GD and will hopefully drive a great deal of profit away from them.

  26. Great blog Patrick. I’ve been following the SOPA/PIPA act since before I left Hostgator last month. I was worried then and now how it will affect Hostgator. Even not being at HG anymore, I believe you guys have the right attitude to succeed and I forsee SOPA/PIPA, if they pass, to directly affect the business of HG and it’s employees and staff and families of staff and customers in a very negative way. I would like to point out for anyone who does not know this, SOPA/PIPA give the U.S. Gov’t the ability to DNS Ban any domain they like, at anytime, for any reason, without notice. Once banned that site would not be available to people even outside the U.S. unless hosted on a server outside the U.S. This is nothing short of censorship and further loss of the rights of the citizens of the United States by the U.S. Gov’t. Again, Patrick, thanks for posting this blog and I am very pleased to see my former company doing the right thing and standing against this unjust bill!

  29. Truth be told, its a good thing the people of United States is making a hard stand. If these guys win by implementing SOPA, they will use it to pressurize other countries to do the same.

    Reliance Broadband, the same guys who own entertainment side of business started blocking file sharing on their broadband. What’s worse is that India being the largest democracy (too bad it isn’t the smartest), the court actually gave them the rights. And they are using it to serve notices to multiple ISPs. :(.

    I urge that Americans should not let the corporates take our freedom. If SOPA is implemented there then all is lost! They’ll use SOPA implementation in United States as an excuse to force government to implement it here as well.

      1. Well said. I can’t believe this is happening. They are doing the same in South Africa. It’s called the “secrecy bill” and it’s used by the EXTREMELY corrupt government, to do even more corrupt things. This world is going to hell…. save it Hostgator!!!

  30. huh, yesterday i posted a comment to where i compared you to sopa, and it’s deleted. so your company really isnt about “free speech” surprise surprise surprise. I really like to know why it was deleted? or is this posting going to get deleted too?

  31. I found HG via multiple recommendations on the Reddit page, checked it out, and… wait… you automate the site transfer? This is the ONLY web host I’ve found where I don’t have to download my 10GB website from GoDaddy on my 700kbps connection, then upload it to a new server. Helping customers switch to you: what a concept, LOL! The environmental focus and SSL certificate are nice bonuses too.
    I’ve been wanting to switch away from GD for a while because of their interface. It’s like they think I’m there to buy more domain names instead of managing my site.

  33. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

    states that “The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement” Maybe Godaddy.com has a business model to benefit from this aspect.

    This post make is seem like the bill is just a means for people with money have more corrupt control.. Is it? Wikipedia says that the bill is made to prevent copy write laws. As an artist who sells digital media I’m attracted to the idea or more control.

    At the same time the bill seems vague, unrealistic… so I can only assume it’s real intents are corrupt.

  35. “Here at HostGator we already spend a HUGE amount of time answering DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) requests.”

    You should be able to recoup cost associated with the complaints, too bad that was left out of the bill. I have used DMCA many times to have infringing content removed, i enjoy being able to do that, but you and others should be able to charge the offending party for this service. Kill SOPA!

  36. Where was Hostgator on this months ago – when people like me were already fighting?
    This appears to be aimed at getting disgruntled GoDaddy customers – rather than an honest attempt at fighting SOPA.

    I’m glad you all say you’re against SOPA, but I finding the timing of this post rather suspicious and self serving.

    Unless I missed some previous announcements……………

    1. Corey, there is no doubt that money plays at least 2% role in this, but the bottom line is, GoDaddy must go down. So whether or not their intentions are valid, their on the bandwagon now, so let’s rather just support it and look at the bigger picture. (for now).

  37. I vehemently oppose SOPA. SOPA are far-right fascists and dictator.
    SOPA stands for severe human rights abuse. Freedom abuse and breaching in what makes us humans.
    SOPA will bring us back in the 90s if it ever passes.

    1. I agree with the sentiment, but fascism (big government) is a product of the far left, not the far right.

  39. HG’s stance against SOPA won them my GoDaddy hosting. I love the easier to use tools. After working with GoDaddy for six years i still had trouble navigating through their labyrinth system. And the endless upselling was confusing and irritating. I also let GoDaddy know why they lost my business. That’s just as important, since they have to know why.

  40. The supporters of this bill want you to think this is what the bill about, but if you actually read it, it is a very dangerous bill that makes censorship easy. There are better ways to protect our intellectual property rights than eliminating due process and creating a system of censorship that can be used to limit free speech.

  41. I don’t like it when people steal my intellectual property either. And I use the DMCA and other methods to prevent it. However, creating a regime of censorship is just going to cause legitimate free speech to be censored, and cause legitimate businesses to move overseas.

  43. I am against SOPA and I support Hostgator and other compnaies in their fights against it. I am opposed to this censorship of the interntet

  44. when its all said and done, the idiots who are supporting sopa need to wake up and realize that if this bill gets passed it will kick start the beginning of a war for revolution or possibly world war three. It happened in the past when the government meddled too far into U.S. Citizens Rights and the result was a war which ended up in the Declaration of Independence. Which has been overulled by our government (how typical) so many times due to their greed that they wont learn until the monster they are creating comes knocking at their doorstep. I hope your reading this you SOPA supporters and those of you who created the idea for SOPA mark my words if this bill passes it will come back on you by your own hands.

  45. I love how these terrible companies have targeted you and your friends, for the REASONS that YOU give. But with all content hosted in South Korea, and no copies of any correspondence, or anything to show WHY your content was removed, or what that content was. It’s kinda like Rodney King saying “The cops beat the crap out of me because I’m black” but don’t mention the fact that he was strung out on drugs, resisting arrest, had eluded police in a high speed chase etc, oh but no, it was because he was black. Uh hu, and I’m sure you did nothing other than say “Host Gator is not a good host”, RIGHT!

  50. I’m glad that hostgator is taking their stance against SOPA and come-on, online is the only world where we have freedom of everything..
    Specially if this rule ever get approved..Most of the U.S based hosting company will be switching their base.. Is int it?

  51. In India its far worse than you think. I think the mass will only react when and if their freedom is stiffled and kept aside till they reach a boiling point. Remember, in a nutshell if SOPA is implemented then downloading a music file of micheal jackson can get you about 4 years in prison. This law in India is far worse than that.

    °Remember Baazee.com? When the CEO was wrongfully arrested when its common sense that they should have arrested the people behind selling the MMS discs on that platform: lack of knowledge

    °Remember some years ago when someone from Bangalore was arrested wrongfully as he was accused of being a hacker? That poor kid was in jail for almost a week I guess: lack of knowledge

    °In 2006 entire blogger network was blocked “accidently” as some ISPs were trying to block access to few blogs (some say because that was when people started criticizing ISP, especially those claiming to offer broadband speed but the reality was something else- but not many people remember): lack of knowledge

    °Then remember someone made a spoof IPL player blog which then there was an infamous rumour that he might be a player in IPL and reporting about the play being a fake (despite mentioning disclaimer in a simply, understandable english) that even a team apparently confronted the blogger and made it to shut down?: using lack of knowledge and power to take down a spoof/satirical blog.

    ° Aseem Trivedi. a very bad deed, although no1 talks about it. The guy has been wrongly accussed as a traitor in a court- a charge that if found false, the plantiff should be guilty.: using lack of knowledge and wrongfully using religion as a sad excuse to silence him/others and make him pay because he participated in the Anna Hazare movement in Mumbai.

    Who wants to be next?

    Mind you even they make a law that is totalitarian in nature and even if it goes against the constitution and the IT law, they will accuse you and throw you in series of court cases because someone in your blog commented about a politician till the day you grow older and weaker filled with other obligations. This is how the law is formed.

    The new sanction that makes the site owner responsible even for 3rd party content, then you live in a constant fear that if someone wanted to screw your happiness and plant something to arrest you while you’re asleep/away and/or take/delete your site (if hosted in India and/or if your hosting company is intimidated by the court viz. unlikely unless they don’t want to loose business for a small blog).

    Its obvious, if the internet cannot be pre-screened they will cook up series of events in their usual fashion (maybe sabotage someone and/or something far worse- throw a blogger in jail for putting up content in the fear and suspicion that it may create a riot) and put a fear in your mind: If you don’t censor yourself, prepare to be hunted down. And they will hunt you down when you are alone and without any access to voice out your opinion against this. Remember one thing, at July 2011 a massive company like reliance which blocked file sharing websites (in a way accussing that all those who use file-sharing websites are pirates) and even airtel did the same. Why? Because 2 movies starring your favourite stars: Bodyguard and Singham. They used a technicality, stating that they want websites, Indian service providers and tv operators to refrain from distributing pirated content in advance. TV operators can’t do it or else their license will be cut off and they would be sued for loss of business and piracy. Most websites are hosted outside India and therefore outside Indian jurisdiction. Entire pressure is on your internet connection providers. Since its impossible to download every content that is uploaded every second by people around the world to see if it has pirated content and to protect themselves by being sued by a powerhouse company like Reliance, they block access to these sites.

    This is just the beginning it goes without saying that everyone will want to make movies under Reliance because Reliance has the gunda power to control you. They will control you and yet you go and watch their movies. Don’t keep your faith in Dept. of Telecom. Although there are some intelligent people there, as usual they will pressured and stiffled by the rich and the powerful, using lack of knowledge and ridiculous notion called “hurting religious sentiments” as a weapon and put you in a blanket of fear.

    When Airtel blocked access to those sites, they even blocked the most active internet broadband based Indian forum India Broadband forum. Airtel broadband displayed the notice that they were ordered by Dept. of telecom. DoT did not pass the court order- but it was the judge. However to save themselves from being damaged by the media and the people, they pass the buck to DoT.

    Question you need to ask yourself:

    Are you willing to spend money to watch movies produced by individuals who curb your freedom?
    Are you willing that your internet service providers can take money from you and give limited access and maybe restrict/monitor download/upload (hence becoming a case of invasion of privacy) to the internet?
    We the 99% will become the property ofthe 1%- politicians, corporates and judges who lack technical knowledge and pass the judgement without understanding- or worse- being paid/controlled to do so?

    Stand for your rights. Blog about this. Tweet the politicians you follow and ask an answer. Make sure its under #internetcensorshipindia so that people can check out your question and the reply from the respected politicians. I will read it, you will read it and the editors of the independent and international press will read it. If you can even make a video blog about it, do it. I know you guys only blog when you get someone in return but you are now defending for basic constitutional right to express yourself. You cannot prevent, then you cannot cure. Look at SOPA movement. If they can do, we can. United we stand and we stand strong.

    Please share this and spread the word.

  52. P.S.: Hostgator, please do not start with Indian host servers. The power and the corrupted will try to break you. This isn’t United States. Please keep all servers in United States where people’s interests are protected by the people.

  56. HostGator, that is really an appreciable step of yours. But, there is a need for more such HostGators to come up and openly appose SOPA.

  58. I am against SOPA and I support Hostgator and other compnaies in their fights against it. I am opposed to this censorship of the interntet

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