GoDaddy takes away domain use from owner when asked to do by MySpace! Awful...

[woeger]

GoDaddy yanked a person's domain from resolving without any notice (per the account owner) for content on the domain that MySpace objected to. No court order - nada, just from a complaint.

This is a free speech issue and in my opinion shows just how anti-customer rights Godaddy is. See more on this NEWS.COM article about Godaddy's action concerning this one domain:

http://news.com.com/GoDaddy+pulls+s...laints/2100-1025_3-6153607.html?tag=nefd.lede

All GoDaddy customer should take this as a warning shot about how Bob Parson's company will apparently not be looking out for them and their interests, but rather bowing to companys' requests to deactivate or perhaps even delete domains. Your domains do not appear to be safe at GoDaddy...

I recommend switching any domains of value to another registrar that cares about your domain ownership rights ASAP (such as Moniker or other reliable registrars).

 

[claire333]

I think other registrars do that more often than godaddy does. Godaddy is considered one of the more lenient ones. Besides, that site probably was doing something illegal if they were sharing myspace passwords.

 

[woeger]

Would you like a registrar to take away your domain or use of your domain without a court order? It appears someone posted passwords on this guys site (without his knowledge) and they took down his site. Note: This is not his domain host doing this, but his domain registrar. This is a Free Speech issue. What if I post religious speech and my register gets 1 complaint by someone who doesn't like my speech. Is it OK for them to yank my domain from resolving or take my domain away from me???

 

[Don]

MySpace demanded that GoDaddy pull the plug on Seclists.org, which hosts some 250,000 pages of mailing list archives and other resources, because a list of thousands of MySpace usernames and passwords was archived on the site. GoDaddy claims its customers own about 18 million domains.

GoDaddy complied. In a move that Seclists.org owner Fyodor Vaskovich said happened with no prior notice, the company deleted his domain name--causing his site to be effectively unreachable for about seven hours on Wednesday until he found out what was happening and removed the password list.

All this over a few hours of downtime? I mean come on CNET... Is there really that little going on in the world that you'll cover this?

I don't hold godaddy in the wrong for this at all - If one of my sites had huge lists of myspace usernames and passwords - I would certainly hope godaddy would be respectful enough to shut it down when they couldn't reach me.

Not newsworthy imo... just a successful attempt at getting a little free press. Nice job with the marketing Fyodor.

 

[woeger]

Never a reason for a registrar to take down or delete a paid-for (unexpired) domain in my opinion. A registrar should never touch someone's domain (making it inactive or deleting it) without the owner's permission (unless for unpaid registration renewal fees or via a court order).

That is why this story was written I believe. It is an outrage and shows GoDaddy's heart (by their comments included in the article) about how they really feel about their customer's "rights" of ownership of domain names.

It appears Godaddy feels they own and control all the domains registered thru them and not their customers. Would your really want to register your domain with a company that feels they own your domain and can take it away or deactivate it at any time (without a court order)?

This example has chilling Free Speech implications...

 

[Don]

So you're trying to tell me that a huge list of myspace usernames and passwords made publicly available should be protected under freedom of speech rights?



Ugh.

They did not "take the domain away"... they just made it so the information that was published was not publicly available - until it was removed.

I see very little harm it it.

 

[woeger]

An ISP (web host provider) can take down a web site (with passwords such as this) and that is Ok, but not a domain registrar. It is not their place (without a court order). That is why I have FREE SPEECH issues with this action by Godaddy.com. I am NOT FOR publishing illegal MySpace account passwords, just against the way thsi was handled (by a domain registrat, instead of through the web hosting ISP).

I don't want Godaddy (or my domain registrar) taking down my site. That is between me and my web hosting provider's contract. If some registrar pulls your domain, you go dark on the Internet and lose Google ranking, etc. No one should have any control over my domains other than myself. They are your property. You want AT&T to turn off your phone without notice (didn't think so).

My main point here is that domain registrars shouldn't act as police. They don't have that power (or shouldn't) to regulate the domains their customers have registered. Only valid, legal courts of law should decide this, except for cases where web hosts can take down illegal/immoral content.

It is like the post office deciding to stop delivering mail to your address... You might lose a lot of sales/orders if they did that to you and you were a business.

 

[Domainate.com]

That is not news, end of story. "OH NOES, MY ILEGULL SIGHT IS DOWNZORS!!!!111"

 

[woeger]

What if Bob Parson, the founder of GoDaddy.com, wanted to take out a political or religious site he disagreed with. I sure hope he would get sued for doing that. That is beyond the role of a domain registrar/registry in my opinion.

You guys are missing the point. This case is not about the content of this one particular website. It is a chilling warning shot across the bow of all domain name owners who run a web site. This means if we allow GoDaddy.com to do this, then we no longer really control our own domains or the content on them, but have permitted a new type of "special police force" who can seize control of our site/domains "for any reason". Sounds too much like "Big Brother" from 1984 to me. GoDaddy acted as the judge, jury and executioner in this case in my opinion.

 

[Don]

That is not news, end of story. "OH NOES, MY ILEGULL SIGHT IS DOWNZORS!!!!111"

It is like the post office deciding to stop delivering mail to your address... You might lose a lot of sales/orders if they did that to you and you were a business.

It is more like the post office deciding to hold your mail for you while they disable the mail bomb they found sitting in your box.

I'm cool with that.

 

[woeger]

Do you really trust the government and post office to do the right thing all the time? Do you want "Big Brother" regulating us? What ever happened to Free Speech?

When GoDaddy.com (or another domain registrar) silences a web site/domain like this, remember Hitler and how he began to silence one ethnic group/minority at a time without others doing anything about it, until he came for them. Maybe your domain/web site will be targeted for being removed or deleted next? Who will be left to come to your aid/rescue if we permit registrars to do this type of thing?

If government took the right to use/enjoy your property (real estate) away from you for a period of time, or permanently, would you stand up and say it's OK? Domains are a lot like property to many people and are a business/revenue source to many.

 

[Don]

You guys are missing the point. This case is not about the content of this one particular website.

I think perhaps you are missing the point.

This case is ONLY about the content of this one particular website.

 

[woeger]

No it's not. It is about a Domain Registrar (in this case GoDaddy.com) acting WITHOUT A COURT ORDER to deactivate a domain from properly functioning/resolving. If I called up GoDaddy because I didn't like content on your site and asked them to inactivate your domain, would you think that was OK if they stopped your domain from functioning in the DNS?

Domain registrars are not to be enforcers or judges of content. A web host can pull down a site with pirated music, passwords to other sites or other illegal stuff on it and refuse to reinstate the account, but I have NEVER heard of a registrar acting in this manner before this case. That is why this new story is important, as it represents a shift in policy for a domain registrar to do this kind of thing without a valid court order.

 

[HeavyDuty]

GoDaddy yanked a person's domain from resolving without any notice (per the account owner) for content on the domain that MySpace objected to. No court order - nada, just from a complaint.

This is a free speech issue and in my opinion shows just how anti-customer rights Godaddy is. See more on this NEWS.COM article about Godaddy's action concerning this one domain ....

I guess that's how Godaddy came to be the largest Registrar and hosting company on the planet. Scammers, spammers and cheats are fair game. I hope they take down a few thousand more.

ref: http://www.webhosting.info/registrars/top-registrars/global/
ref: http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts/tophosts/global/

"a free speech issue" - hardly, more like a Registry and Registrar T&C issue.

Regards,

 

[woeger]

Biggest doesn't also mean best (we all know this in business). Sometimes people act like sheep or lemmings and follow a pied piper with a bad Registrar Terms & Conditions contract (T&C). Who really reads those conditions anyway? Shame on Godaddy.com (in my opinion) for putting that stuff in their T&C legal contract. Just because they slipped that in, doesn't make it right.

I started this thread to serve as a warning that GoDaddy has these over broad items in their T&C that allow them to do apparently "whatever they like" with their customers' domains. Read your registrar's terms and conditions and switch to a registrar without these kind of terms, or perhaps you might lose the use of or ownership of your domain(s). Other Registrars don't do this.

 

[Don]

This is like swimming upstream with no arms, no legs...




and no water! :o

 

[woeger]

Here is a link to the official statement from the web site owner who had his site shut down by GoDaddy.com with a full description of the events surrounding this "domain takedown" by GoDaddy. It is awful what Godaddy did in my opinion.

Read this:
http://seclists.org/nmap-hackers/2007/0000.html

 

[mis_chiff]

The way I see this is Kudos for Godaddy!
Think about it, if it was YOUR information and
passwords up there and you just happened to
be surfing the net and there is all your passwords and
login info, available to anyone!

Now, your first response - as most would be "Why is it still up there"!
"why hasn't the registrar taken it down yet! that's private info
their hosting!" How come no ones doing anything about removing it...
My goodness, that's my info...blah blah...
So it's a catch 22, there wouldn't have been a freedom of speech
issue if godaddy had left it up there! Instead, they'd be getting
sued by all the people who got ripped off cause they wouldn't
remove the site - to protect the [cough] owner!
So, sorry but I think godaddy was in the right, cause if it was
my info out there - they would be getting my call first demanding they delete it!
That I believe is a PRIVACY issue - so which is worse!

 

[Don]

http://www.spamhaus.org/faq/answers.lasso?section=Generic Questions

That is an interesting link.

 

[hollywood]

Do I understand the facts correctly?

1. seclists.org archives mailing lists; they have no control over what people post to those lists.

2. theirs was by no means the only copy of the password list.

3. all myspace had to do was contact abuse AT seclists and request that the inappropriate material be removed but instead they asked godaddy to pull the plug on the DNS?

And godaddy did??? :o

 

[shopperx]

Usually the job of monitoring illegal content on websites must be done by the hosting company, not the registrar.

If the hosting company isnt responding messages to remove the content then i dont see why the registrar shouldnt take care.

 

[shockie]

free speech has its limits.

free speech has its limits.

it is somewhat naive to believe that there is truly a thing as "free speech", and foolish to believe that complete free speech is a good thing.

:imho:

 

[Domainate.com]

Usually the job of monitoring illegal content on websites must be done by the hosting company, not the registrar.

If the hosting company isnt responding messages to remove the content then i dont see why the registrar shouldnt take care.

Precisely, though MySpace may not have understood that and may have gone directly to the registrar. Still, when one of the largest "hip" sites on the internet filled with millions of people that view your Super Bowl commercial every year tells you to do something relatively minor like disable a domain until illegal content is taken off of it, who in their right mind would NOT do it? Those of you crying free speech, see this from the business perspective of GoDaddy. Also realize that free speech DOES have its limits...they are called LAWS. I can say whatever I want, but if I seriously verbally threaten someone, I am breaking the law (assault). Porn is freedom of speech, but porn of children 17 and under sure isn't. Compromising any kinds of website accounts and posting people's passwords is simply NOT free speech.

Those of you saying they can't control the content of their site...YES THEY CAN. They could make it so that all submissions need to be approved by them, which would solve their problem and ensure that they are never at risk. Instead, they choose to run it the way they run it, and if illegal stuff winds up on there, THEY will be held liable for it.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Steve, yes I agree.

 

[Tippy]

If I was GoDaddy I would have done the same thing and much more, thumbs up GoDaddy.