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).

 

[Matthew.]

It is not the registrars duty to remove domains based on the content. Surely if action has to be taken by someone because of the site's content then it should be the host and or datacentre?

Jones pointed out that GoDaddy's terms of service say the company "reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever."

Bottom line is that while debatably what GD did was unethical, it was not against their own TOS which the domain owner would have agreed to. Don't like it? Don't use them.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

This is very interesting

In my opinion i think What Godaddy did is WRONG. If they think the user is violated the TOS and they should deleted the content NOT A DOMAIN NAME.

 

[woeger]

Here is an article from DomainWire today about this topic:
http://domainnamewire.com/2007/01/26/godaddy-faces-pr-nightmare-over-domain-suspension/

 

[Don]

Here is an article from DomainWire today about this topic:
http://domainnamewire.com/2007/01/26/godaddy-faces-pr-nightmare-over-domain-suspension/

The comment by steven regarding that article... is imo more newsworthy than the article itself. i'll quote it below...

This is not new. I had a recent experience with Tucows taking a name that was possibly a TM name. Tucows never received a letter from the company or a UDRP. They think they are authorized to “police” the internet. Once i realized it, I contacted Tucows and learned that they took control of the name for security (phishing) reasons. I had never modified the nameservers or done anything other than have the name parked. After speaking with Ross Rader, he told me they could take whatever names they deemed a potential risk and didn’t need to notify the domain name owner. After stealing my name, they used it in the exact manner in which i was using it. I had a PPC page on it and once they took control, so did they. They made money on my domain name for about 45 days during the holiday season which was it’s price earnings opportunity. Additionally, the name was aquired through their domain auctions. I contacted Icann and they choose not too respond or address the issue.

That ^ would irk me.

 

[emega]

In my opinion GoDaddy was very wrong for pulling down this guys domain name. Only the Web host has a right to take down content of a Web site, not a domain registrar because a domain is your propery, not GoDaddy's.
In addition another possible reason why godaddy took down this guys website is because since godaddy has a partnership with google (and my space is owned by google) godaddy did not want to start a fight/lose their relationship with google.)

Of course, in other cases where godaddy takes down people websites its not even because they have a partnership with the person who is complaining. It is because they think they have a right to control your property, and it is very wrong.

Judging from the News.com article godaddy was being extremely arragant. It was frankly, OUTRAGIOUS!

 

[Tippy]

What this person did was wrong, who the F cares who takes him down.

 

[Matthew.]

What this person did was wrong, who the F cares who takes him down.

I have deliberately not read why the domain was taken, for exactly the reason that answers your question (all be it rhetorical).

The fact is, GoDaddy took a domain away without notifying the owner...is this technically wrong? No - All of us agree to their TOS.

Is it ethically wrong for GoDaddy to take a domain due to its content on request from a company without a court order and without contacting the owner? Debatable. (Leaning towards yes).

 

[Tippy]

Im sure they verified the claim and then took action, I would have done the same thing.

The Company was looking out for its clients/users/customers.

 

[Domainate.com]

Is it ethically wrong for GoDaddy to take a domain due to its content on request from a company without a court order and without contacting the owner? Debatable. (Leaning towards yes).

If it was a simple case of the owner exerecising free speech on the website that was on the domain, I would agree with this. However, there was illegal content on the website, and I don't care which company is involved...a big company is not going to defend an illegal website under the pressure of another big entity, whether it be the government or another big website/business. Furthermore, I would imagine Verisign has TOS for usage of domains that explicitly prohibits illegal content on websites, and GoDaddy could technically enforce those. Maybe someone can look up whether Verisign has a TOS for all .com domains...I'm at work.

I mean if child porn was up on the site, would you honestly prefer GoDaddy to kindly ask the domain owner to take it down, wait 72 hours or however long they have to, then go through the whole process of getting a court to order it done for it to be taken down? Or if there was a website with YOUR email address and password to access your email, or whatever the account may be. It's easy to say that GoDaddy should take all steps to prevent having to do what they did when it's not our password being compromised.

 

[ofclean]

This has nothing to do with free speech. It has to do with a service agreement between two private parties.

 

[dotnom]

Well this is what worries me with registrars and this is why i suggest smaller registrars. With small registrars there are less people, better understanding, better communication. What if a customer representative respond within 2 hours but can't help me when there is a problem beyond his control panel ?

I don't know the reason of course but for whatever reason nobody can and should suspend/cancel a domain which is the primary entrance for your site without a formal explanation based on facts

Even then the owner must have a redemption phase. Suddenly TV can judge people, GoDaddy can terminate domains, what next ?

Before some years that was out of the question. The hosting company is the one who hosts the content (if it's illegal) or distributes the email (if it's spam). What the registrar have to do with this?

If we try to take measures for abuse we should not abandon fairness and democracy to our actions. I rule and i do what i want because i have the power to do so it's not a solution at all. Internet was based on free thoughts and free distribution. Nobody should be a substitute of real legal judge. There are laws and if someone breaks them only legal authorities can decide for his fate (and his business fate)

Again i'm not talking about extreme issues, but even with extreme issues my point about law i said before doesn't change
There are criminals in real life doing horrible actions and they deserve a fair trial. This doesn't change the rule

Registrar who ban/suspend/cancel a domain name OR even worse if whole registry doing the same (EURid) makes a big mistake against internet IMO

Big registrars don't have time to spend with issues like this. This is not if the owner of this domain is right or wrong, i'm not the one who will decide but the same must apply with GoDaddy

Nobody without a legal decision can terminate or suspend your site's domain
If GoDaddy believes this is against his TOS must tell the owner to move the domain because they can't serve them anymore, not perm.suspend or in any way cancel the domain. Domain Registrars are not like Web Host providers you can switch every day. They should be responsible with their customers

I don't think there is a meaning to this
If there is no law broken GD is not authorized to take any action that may cost the business reputation/future of anyone
Also don't forget a downside to the whole white crusade against anything looks grey

What if someone anonymously accuses 1000s time a site?
GD close it without any explanation and lock it so that can't be used it anymore ?
This can happen of course only to small-medium sites because if the site is big GD doesn't touch it and even if he does the lawyers of the suspended site will sue GD and this is certainly something he doesn't want

This scenario already happened with small and medium sites and their Google adsense account. Malicious people willing to create problems to the site, click every day site's adsense ads. The owners make the mistake and don't report it. After a while Google send a nice termination note and the site owner loose not only his monthly cheque but he's perm.blacklisted at Adsense, he can't apply for a new account anymore.

Anyone taking the role of punisher or white crusader of corruption without proper evidence and time to analyze them is the same dirty as the one who really does these forbidden actions

If GoDaddy counts only complains and doesn't have time to evaluate them but only locks sites because they feel it's right and their agreement gives them this opportunity then GetRidGoDaddy

The article and the comments at domainnamewire.com are scarry :
( http://domainnamewire.com/2007/01/26/godaddy-faces-pr-nightmare-over-domain-suspension/ )

1. "To make matters worse, GoDaddy general counsel Christine Jones responded by saying GoDaddy’s terms of service say the company reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever"

2. "After speaking with Ross Rader (Tucows), he told me they could take whatever names they deemed a potential risk and didn’t need to notify the domain name owner"

and the last comment

"GoDaddy is probably the worst registar because they censor domains they don’t even host. These are the same guys who run commercials that run up against FCC standards, but if they don’t like the ideas expressed on your website they will suspend or cancel your domain without notice. GoDaddy has crossed a line for which it should be boycotted. Go elsewhere if you want professional services and you’ll save money too"

 

[Ringr]

Still, another good reason why I backed the hell away from using GoDaddy. Now I just use DomainSite. GoDaddy was good back in the day, but now they're the epitome of all registrars IMHO. Any time they make the news it's because they're putting their nose in the wrong spot, and I doubt if anyone here has ever actually spent a whole day reading the service contract from any registrar.

 

[Domainate.com]

1. "To make matters worse, GoDaddy general counsel Christine Jones responded by saying GoDaddy’s terms of service say the company reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever"

It's funny, in that big long post, you gloss over this as a "scary comment" on another message board, and what's REALLY scary about it is that I bet you less than 1% of people registering domains on Godaddy READ the terms of service. Guess who's fault that is?

Seriously people, I know we all hate big corporations, but think from their perspective! Would GoDaddy intentionally cripple themselves and NOT have that statement in their TOS? Restaurants for example have the right to refuse service to anyone at any time for no reason. Do they do it all the time or even at all? No. But you better believe if someone comes in and does something illegal in their restaurant that they'll kick that person out. How is what GoDaddy did any different? Because they didn't notify the person? Tell me this then: What if they sent emails, mail to the address, and called all the contact phone numbers and got no response? "Sorry MySpace...we can't reach him, so we can't do anything!" What if the person responds and says "no, I won't take it down"? What if the person says "oh my gosh, I didn't know that illegal stuff was on my site. I'll take it down immediately" and sits on their ass doing nothing that point forward?

Also, I'd like to see this statement proven: "(regarding GoDaddy) but if they don’t like the ideas expressed on your website they will suspend or cancel your domain without notice.)" Anyone have an example not involving laws and/or their TOS being broken?

 

[verbster]

If I was GoDaddy I would have done the same thing and much more

"Much more," huh? Glad you're not GoDaddy.

 

[vslevin]

This is very interesting

In my opinion i think What Godaddy did is WRONG. If they think the user is violated the TOS and they should deleted the content NOT A DOMAIN NAME.

Godaddy is not the host. They cannot delete the content.

 

[shockie]

- oh yeah, gd needs to be 100% sure the owner is guilty with a supreme ruling from the highest court of the land in order to uphold its own TOS... hah.

- why dont people read the gd TOS? because most people know that they're not going to d_ck around with their domain and do things that easily seen as illegal.

- it doesnt need to be against the law for gd to follow its own TOS, so stop with the "legal this, legal that"

- and please, im sick of the whole "free speech free speech" bs. stop making a big scene just because you feel that you have the right to. and as ive mentioned before, free speech has its limits, and 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.

- not to mention that trying to cloak giving away passwords as "free speech" is somewhat lame.

 

[000]

It was very clear that the site had illegal content on it, and what GoDaddy did is legal, within their TOS, and right.

I don't care who the hell you are, if you've got the passwords of innocent people's Myspace accounts on your site, the registrar has every right to suspend the domain if it is within their TOS.

 

[Dave_Z]

It was very clear that the site had illegal content on it, and what GoDaddy did is legal, within their TOS, and right.

I don't care who the hell you are, if you've got the passwords of innocent people's Myspace accounts on your site, the registrar has every right to suspend the domain if it is within their TOS.

Bingo.

Do the rest of you ever bother to read your provider's legal fine print?

http:// www. godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?pageid=REG%5FSA

As a condition of Your use of Go Daddy ’s Software and Services, You agree not to use them for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms and conditions, and You agree to comply with any applicable local, state, federal and international laws, government rules or requirements. You agree You will not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid to Go Daddy if, for any reason, Go Daddy takes corrective action with respect to Your improper or illegal use of its Services.

Go Daddy reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as Go Daddy deems necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, in Go Daddy's sole discretion.

If You have purchased Services, Go Daddy has no obligation to monitor Your use of the Services. Go Daddy reserves the right to review Your use of the Services and to cancel the Services in its sole discretion. Go Daddy reserves the right to terminate Your access to the Services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever.

Go Daddy reserves the right to terminate Services if Your usage of the Services results in, or is the subject of, legal action or threatened legal action, against Go Daddy or any of its affiliates or partners, without consideration for whether such legal action or threatened legal action is eventually determined to be with or without merit. Go Daddy may review every account for excessive space and bandwidth utilization and to terminate or apply additional fees to those accounts that exceed allowed levels.

Except as set forth below, Go Daddy may also cancel Your use of the Services, after thirty (30) days, if You are using the Services, as determined by Go Daddy in its sole discretion, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities. Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to: activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties; activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or foreign territories in which You conduct business; activities designed to encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and child pornography; activities that are tortuous, vulgar, obscene, invasive of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; activities designed to impersonate the identity of a third party; illegal access to other computers or networks (i.e., hacking); distribution of Internet viruses or similar destructive activities; and activities designed to harm or use unethically minors in any way. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, in the event Go Daddy cancels Your Services during the first thirty (30) days after You purchase the Services, You will receive a refund of any fees paid to Go Daddy in connection with the Services being canceled. In the event Go Daddy deletes Your Services because they are being used in association with spam or morally objectionable activities, no refund will be issued. You agree You will not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid to Go Daddy if, for any reason, Go Daddy takes corrective action with respect to Your improper or illegal use of its Services.

People can believe A should become B. But there's no cosmic law saying one
should believe what the other does, nor are they obliged to.

You wanna make it a free speech issue? Do as you wish.

But is that going to change the fact you agree to all of their terms once you
check the box beside "I have read the registration agreement and agree to all
its terms" if you're using them? No.

Awareness and responsibility is a two-way street, people. Be aware and also
be responsible, or someone else will do that for you even if you don't like it.

And of course, don't use them if you don't agree to their terms. You do have
other choices, after all.

 

[Carlton]

If it was a simple case of the owner exerecising free speech on the website that was on the domain, I would agree with this. However, there was illegal content on the website, and I don't care which company is involved...a big company is not going to defend an illegal website under the pressure of another big entity, whether it be the government or another big website/business. Furthermore, I would imagine Verisign has TOS for usage of domains that explicitly prohibits illegal content on websites, and GoDaddy could technically enforce those. Maybe someone can look up whether Verisign has a TOS for all .com domains...I'm at work.

I mean if child porn was up on the site, would you honestly prefer GoDaddy to kindly ask the domain owner to take it down, wait 72 hours or however long they have to, then go through the whole process of getting a court to order it done for it to be taken down? Or if there was a website with YOUR email address and password to access your email, or whatever the account may be. It's easy to say that GoDaddy should take all steps to prevent having to do what they did when it's not our password being compromised.

Excellent comments.

It was very clear that the site had illegal content on it, and what GoDaddy did is legal, within their TOS, and right.

I don't care who the hell you are, if you've got the passwords of innocent people's Myspace accounts on your site, the registrar has every right to suspend the domain if it is within their TOS.

Ditto!

 

[emega]

If it was a simple case of the owner exerecising free speech on the website that was on the domain, I would agree with this. However, there was illegal content on the website, and I don't care which company is involved...a big company is not going to defend an illegal website under the pressure of another big entity, whether it be the government or another big website/business. Furthermore, I would imagine Verisign has TOS for usage of domains that explicitly prohibits illegal content on websites, and GoDaddy could technically enforce those. Maybe someone can look up whether Verisign has a TOS for all .com domains...I'm at work.

I mean if child porn was up on the site, would you honestly prefer GoDaddy to kindly ask the domain owner to take it down, wait 72 hours or however long they have to, then go through the whole process of getting a court to order it done for it to be taken down? Or if there was a website with YOUR email address and password to access your email, or whatever the account may be. It's easy to say that GoDaddy should take all steps to prevent having to do what they did when it's not our password being compromised.

Please, the one who can get in trouble with the law is not the domain registrar, its the domain registrant.

It's funny, in that big long post, you gloss over this as a "scary comment" on another message board, and what's REALLY scary about it is that I bet you less than 1% of people registering domains on Godaddy READ the terms of service. Guess who's fault that is?

Seriously people, I know we all hate big corporations, but think from their perspective! Would GoDaddy intentionally cripple themselves and NOT have that statement in their TOS? Restaurants for example have the right to refuse service to anyone at any time for no reason. Do they do it all the time or even at all? No. But you better believe if someone comes in and does something illegal in their restaurant that they'll kick that person out. How is what GoDaddy did any different? Because they didn't notify the person? Tell me this then: What if they sent emails, mail to the address, and called all the contact phone numbers and got no response? "Sorry MySpace...we can't reach him, so we can't do anything!" What if the person responds and says "no, I won't take it down"? What if the person says "oh my gosh, I didn't know that illegal stuff was on my site. I'll take it down immediately" and sits on their ass doing nothing that point forward?

Also, I'd like to see this statement proven: "(regarding GoDaddy) but if they don’t like the ideas expressed on your website they will suspend or cancel your domain without notice.)" Anyone have an example not involving laws and/or their TOS being broken?

You miss the point. A domain is your property, not GoDaddy's! GoDaddy has no legal obligations to take down a domain name, but they did so anyways. The only one who should have a right to take down content on a domain name is the web hosting provider.

If myspace wanted the site down they should have went to icann and/or sued the guy in court.

What happened was downright outrageous!

P.S. I don't hate big corporations, and I liked GoDaddy a lot before this. I am especially happy about godaddy's super bowl commercials which give great publicity to the domain industry.

I have contacted [email protected] about this issue, and so it will be very interesting to see their response back.

 

[Domainate.com]

Please, the one who can get in trouble with the law is not the domain registrar, its the domain registrant.

I will say this: GoDaddy may not have HAD to take down the guy's site simply because MySpace requested it. However, MySpace's next step would have probably been getting a court order to have either the hosting and/or domain name suspended, and GoDaddy would have certainly had to comply with that. Just like when you get a C&D letter for a TM-infringing domain, would it be better to comply nicely and hand the domain over, or would you instead wait for a court to tell you to do it?

Whether or not it's feasible to think that GoDaddy could possibly get in legal trouble over not complying with MySpace's request, the fact remains that the illegal content was hosted by the provider of the host and made its home on the domain provided by GoDaddy. If GoDaddy were to tell MySpace to F off, even if MySpace wouldn't bring a lawsuit against them, I'm sure GoDaddy wouldn't want any kind of bad press MySpace could bring to them if they didn't comply with MySpace's request.

Also, you must remember that contrary to popular belief, when we register a domain name, we do not own the domain name such that we can do ANYTHING we want with it. We own the right to rent the name from the registry (Verisign for .coms) via the registrar GoDaddy for the registered amount of time with the ability to renew the registration at any time for up to 10 years of registration, PROVIDED THAT we follow the Terms of Service set forth by GoDaddy the registrar, most of which is likely Terms of Service Verisign the registry puts forth for all .com domain registrations.

I'm honestly surprised there's as many people as there are that are now avidly against GoDaddy for doing what they did. If you were GoDaddy, would you have done NOTHING and waited for a court to order you? Would you have willingly risked bad press from MySpace and/or its affiliates while essentially defending an illegal website located on a domain you are providing?

 

[000]

GoDaddy has no legal obligations to take down a domain name, but they did so anyways. The only one who should have a right to take down content on a domain name is the web hosting provider.

And what's wrong with GoDaddy stepping in and suspending a domain name that infringes upon the TOS that the registrant agreed to?

The idiot here is not GoDaddy, it's the owner of the site. Seriously, what kind of moron would have a site with stolen Myspace passwords and expect to get away with it? He got what he had coming to him. 8-X :talk:

 

[Dave_Z]

I'm honestly surprised there's as many people as there are that are now avidly against GoDaddy for doing what they did.

Don't be. It's human nature that people believe whatever they want, even if
certain undisputable facts are staring right in their faces.

RTFP, people. Ignorance of the law excuses no one, and neither is ignoring all
the terms of your provider's legal print.

 

[JBebbington]

I don't get it. GoDaddy acted within their ToS, were not doing anything immoral or illegal, and as far as I can tell the host was ignoring this issue? Good for GoDaddy!

 

[dotnom]

Interesting to see many people expressing different views for the same issue
It's a like a prism. Nobody see it from the same angle
However i like it because that's the idea of free speech

This issue raised some concerns about what GoDaddy did and what is willing to do with domains
We should not forget that their TOS is about the services he resells (domains) from Verisign
Does Verisign has the same rules? I don't know but i don't think so

- What GoDaddy did was right according to his TOS, wrong according to generic fair business policy. Host is responsible not GoDaddy

What is logically to assume when someone is willing to do illegal or unethical actions :
- Shut up, swallow the incident, email his users for the new name. Simple fast, productive
instead we see here someone who made this issue top story to several forums, newsletters to get what?
Publicity for his suspended domain?

An another point i didn't see anyone comment it
- The domain was just suspended or terminated ?
- Can the owner move his domain to another registrar or lost it for ever ?

If GD just suspend it maybe was in his TOS (which i don't agree, that's why i don't use them) but holding the domain hostage to his services i think is wrong

The TOS is a form of guidelines for the customer
If the customer cross them then GD can choose not to work with the customer
OK fine for the company and the customer
Is there anywhere in the TOS where says that the company will keep the domain because they think customer is the bad boy
The idea is simple, i don't agree Mr.X with the content of your site, go away and NOT i close your shop's frontdoor and go figure how you will open it, if you ever will

-We also don't know if GoDaddy contact the domain owner or the hosting company and received a reply from any of these two
-Why the hosting company didn't act before GD ?
-Was the owner so foolish to continue to have this content after he received an email from GoDaddy OR he never received any complain ?
-If someone posted in your blog/forum/guestbook a list of passwords or stolen visa numbers or whatever similar and you didn't see it, your site would risk to be suspended without notice ?
- Do you deny that someone can maliciously create bad reputation, false evidence that can lead you to problems ? Do you think there are not people capable to do so ?

I don't comment this topic only for the specific example but generally for the ability you have to protect your domain name and your business future from any threat it may arise

What i don't like with GoDaddy is that they don't have the time to explain and their TOS of course gives them the legal excuse not to

We didn't hear GD opinion, maybe Parsons will blog for it but so far i see him busy how he can pass his twice rejected ad for the super bowl and boobies sorry i mean boost his company once more. (by the way his 2nd ad is awful, i like the old boobies ad MUCH better)


Bottomline for me : READ THE TOS OF EVERY REGISTRAR YOU TRUST YOUR NAMES. Boobies are good, service awareness is awesome but always the small letters can make the difference

In today's world everything can be faked and even if you are 100% legal you may have similar problems. Secure your business with trustable and cooperative partners they have faith in you as you have with them