Namecheap.com: We say no to SOPA

http://community.namecheap.com/blog/2011/12/22/we-say-no-to-sopa/

by mannymanifesto • 15 years ago

525 85 15 years ago

community.namecheap.com

Lazare2• 15 years ago

I moved all my domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap a while ago. The experience was really smooth, and Namecheap's interface is a TON easier to work with.

Although I support the idea of switching domains from GoDaddy to protest their support of SOPA, I sort have to wonder why anyone technically oriented hasn't done so already. Is there ANYTHING to recommend them other than name recognition?

bcl• 15 years ago

I made the move back when GoDaddy pulled Fydor's domain w/o warning. I'm glad to see that I don't have to hunt down yet another registrar that supports freedom.

citricsquid• 15 years ago

Prices. Nobody beats godaddy on prices when you use coupons (which exist everywhere). Also brand recognition, looking at their public support forum and Facebook I would suspect a large number of their customers don't know how registrars and hosting work, so they don't know anything beyond godaddy.

gwillen2• 15 years ago

Historical reasons. I've had my domains with them for almost ten years. Ten years ago they were the geek registrar of choice.

_ouxp• 15 years ago

Same here. I transfered all of my domains from Network Solutions to them about 10 years ago and have mostly been able to ignore them--I run my own name servers & hosting. More recently, I've been registering domains on namecheap, and this may provide the motivation to finally consolidate my names with a less offensive registrar.

mappu• 15 years ago

GoDaddy also has a larger variety of ccTLDs available (for instance, namecheap doesn't sell .it or .es).

But i'm sure there are lots of other registrars that support those domains and not this act.

cowkingdeluxe• 15 years ago

Namecheap.com: We say no to SOPA but only accept Visa and Mastercard, both of whom support SOPA.

endtwist• 15 years ago

They also gladly accept PayPal, to be fair.

ars2• 15 years ago

And PayPal accepts Visa/MC - how far does the contagion spread?

ars2• 15 years ago

They don't really have a choice about that.

mvanveen• 15 years ago

When I was growing up and learning about DNS, HTTP, protocols, and packets I really wanted to get my own domain, but being under 18, I had no easy way to pay a registar without a credit card.

Namecheap was one of the first registrars to accept Paypal, and this helped me get started when I was first developing my passion for web development.

I've been using them for years and plan to continue using them for a long time.

cdr3• 15 years ago

Note that while Namecheap doesn't support SOPA, they clearly do support some form of new IP legislation: "not in favor of SOPA as it has been proposed", "... only a surgical strike is necessary." Whatever comes after SOPA/PROTECT IP - assuming they're defeated - Namecheap may well endorse.

cheald5• 15 years ago

Most sane people support sane IP legislation. It's perfectly reasonable for IP holders to want to have legal recourse against the bad guys. There are lots of people making a lot of money selling a lot of illegal merchandise online.

What people protest about SOPA is that it gives tools to companies (with a history of abusing the recourses granted to them by law) that are akin to a wrecking ball intended to be used as a flyswatter. Sure, you'll get the fly, but you're going to take out three walls, a couple of load-bearing columns, and an unfortunate cat in the process.

cdr3• 15 years ago

We have pretty sane IP law already in the DMCA - IP rightsholders already have several avenues of recourse, including the US govt's warantless domain seizures. Anything new is going to beyond the DMCA, and probably far beyond. I am not in support of that and have a hard time cheering on any company that is in support.

slowpoke2• 15 years ago

>Most sane people support sane IP legislation.

Sane IP legislation is no IP legislation. I don't know why we are still clinging to the ridiculous concept of being able to own abstract concepts. The true insanity is IP in the first place.

swalsh• 15 years ago

May I inquire why cheald was downvoted? His post seemed reasonably well written, and, at least in my opinion, contributed to the conversation. I was to be under the impression down-voting in regards to disagreement was discouraged.

o2sd• 15 years ago

> Most sane people support sane IP legislation.

Too ambiguous and vague. IP legislation that was written at the time of the constitution is perfectly suitable for the modern age without the need to extend forever.

> It's perfectly reasonable for IP holders to want to have legal recourse against the bad guys.

What is reasonable is a LIMITED monopoly on the copying of an artistic medium as long as it 'promotes the arts and sciences'. The goal of copyright and patent law is to maximise the benefits of art and technology TO SOCIETY, not to some corporation. The method of doing this is to grant a LIMITED TIME monopoly over a creation as an incentive to create, not to make corporations more profitable. Once that LIMITED TIME has passed, the creation enters the public domain and society as a whole accrues the benefits. Having infinitely extendable copyrights/patents, copyrights owned by corporations renders the purpose of copyright/patents NULL AND VOID, because society never accrues the benefit associated with the cost (i.e. the monopoly).

> There are lots of people making a lot of money selling a lot of illegal merchandise online.

No, there isn't. There are some, always have been, always will be, because when a market for goods or services is inefficient, it changes the risk/reward ratio for 'cheaters'. Look at the market for drugs for example. The risks are huge, but the rewards are ridiculously higher in proportion. As long as the risk/reward ratio is skewed (i.e. the market is inefficient), there will always be 'cheaters' or 'criminals' in that market. Turning your country into a police state might be one way to stop that, but it may also kill the market you are trying to protect.

bad_user• 15 years ago

I do not agree with your argument because you're ignoring one very damaging trait of SOPA ... penalty without trial and guilty until proven innocent.

This has nothing to do with a wrecking ball intended to be used as a flyswatter. This has to do with fundamental human rights. This is more akin to the existence of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. This is George Bush telling people that they need the "proper tools to fight terrorism" and it's OK because these are not US citizens and so they shouldn't have any rights.

phzbOx• 15 years ago

Which is fair IMO. I wouldn't want to provide domains for highly immoral websites.

cdr3• 15 years ago

They don't have to provide domains (or anything else) to anyone they don't want to.

pbreit• 15 years ago

Yeah, I don't get why they have to hedge with the "as it has been proposed". Which of its constituents is looking for that hedge?

Why can't they just say they do not support the bill. Or, better, that they oppose the bill? Does "as currently proposed" add anything?

Rhapso3• 15 years ago

maybe I have this wrong, but it sounds like they heard the rabble rousing and made a well timed good marketing move. No surprise. But it does make me sad when a political stance is a marketing move.

cheald5• 15 years ago

I have no problem with it if their political stance actually lines up with the marketing move. If folks are mad that your competitor likes to kick puppies, it's totally fair game to say "Hey, we provide the same thing, and you don't have to finance puppy-kicking if you use us."

Rhapso3• 15 years ago

I hope you are right, and the order of things is as you say. If not we are trading one evil for another.

akadien3• 15 years ago

Why does it make you sad for a business to react to market conditions and try to garner more customers as well as let existing customers know their stance? That is why they exist. I would be sad if they didn't take a stance and use it to support their business.

Rhapso3• 15 years ago

I suppose if the order is as such, "we already have this stance, and if we market it now it will benefit us" it would not bug me as much. However if it had this order "If we take this stance and market it, it will benefit us" it implies the stance will last only as long as the marketing and the benefit. I guess at the lowest root, I feel like marketing and politics should never be mixed, that using marketing in politics, and taking advantage of politics in marketing is somehow perhaps irrationally, the cause of a lot of our current cultural and lobbying abuse troubles. However, I am so left wing I fall a bit off the scale and I most definitely do not have the soul of a business man, perhaps I am best dismissed as a crazy person.

sontek• 15 years ago

Does namecheap have free DNS? I have 25 domains on godaddy and thinking about moving them, but I will need to be able to manage nameservers through whoever I switch to since right now thats all done through godaddy.

Also, whats the cost of transfering?

yeswecan• 15 years ago

I don't know about the transfer cost, but I know they do have free DNS as I use it myself.

peeplaja• 15 years ago

Cost of transfer is 1 year fee, so $9.95 for .com domains

xelfer• 15 years ago

$6.99 using the SOPASucks code. http://i.imgur.com/MDSHl.jpg

chc• 15 years ago

Yep, they offer free DNS hosting. I've used them as my primary DNS and registrar for years without issue.

prpon• 15 years ago

I just transferred the last few of my godaddy domains to Namecheap. I've used namecheap as dns host for a while without problems. Transfers are $6.99 with SOPASucks coupon code.

SOPA finally made me get off my lazy ass and do something about consolidating all of them to namecheap.

seldo• 15 years ago

Totally independently of their SOPA stance, I would recommend Namecheap over GoDaddy. I've been using Namecheap for years; they are reliable and have a sane (if not terribly pretty) user interface.

guywithabike• 15 years ago

I switched to Namecheap after I got bit in the ass by the RegisterFly fiasco. Namecheap has been great to me ever since. I highly recommend them, despite their spammy-sounding name.

Jim_Neath• 15 years ago

I've been using namecheap for years and have yet to have a single issue with them.

rev087• 15 years ago

I just own a few domais, but they are all registered at Namecheap, the first since 2006. I too am yet to face a single issue with their service.

jccodez• 15 years ago

Another satisfied Namecheap customer.

arto• 15 years ago

Seconded. I've used Namecheap for some 7 years now. Unlike so many of their competitors, they actually care about customer satisfaction.

laironald• 15 years ago

No complaints about Namecheap over here as well.

firefoxman1• 15 years ago

Now there is a perfect marketing opportunity seized by Namecheap. Reminds me of when LaLa was acquired and Pandora offered a month free of Pandora One to "LaLa refugees."

8ig8• 15 years ago

Just adding a shout for Hover. They've been opposing SOPA for a while now:

https://www.hover.com/blog/hover-opposes-sopa

brianbreslin2• 15 years ago

Do any non godaddy registrars offer bulk discounts?

simonsarris• 15 years ago

Ask!

Many do not advertise it but will do a bulk discount if you ask. I'm pretty certain Namecheap is one of them (if you have more than 50 I think).

telemekus• 15 years ago

Contacted a help person @namecheap. when I asked for 50+ domains, was told, there is no bulk discount other than the current SOPASuck type deal. The current SOPASucks is limited to 10 domains.

I Wish there was a bulk discount. Pity namecheap couldn't come up with tiered bulk domain transferring pricing.

l0c0b0x• 15 years ago

Namecheap was the most referenced domain registrar when I was planning on moving away from GoDaddy. They really have their act together and I've been happy with them ever since. Way to go on your SOPA stance.

Legion3• 15 years ago

That's nice. But I prefer my registrar have freedom and anti-censorship be a core everyday value, like NearlyFreeSpeech, rather than something to embrace as a marketing opportunity.

Maybe that's unfair to Namecheap, but at any rate, all these issues with GoDaddy that people seem to suddenly care about just now are the reasons I have given NFS all my domain registration business for years now.

Just being anti-SOPA isn't good enough.

muyuu• 15 years ago

Does that mean that you need to raise the issue in your brand name to have freedom and anti-censorship as a core everyday value?

Legion3• 15 years ago

Nope. Talking about it normally, and not just when it's a convenient hot-button issue, would be sufficient.

A history of backing up those words with actions that match would also help.

soult2• 15 years ago

Just FYI, nearlyfreespeech.net is a name.com reseller. name.com did speak out against SOPA too, but only after namecheap did.

jtreminio• 15 years ago

I like NFS, but apparently they have some caveats, such as you cannot set up a domain to use its' own nameservers (buy foo.com, setup nameservers as ns1.foo.com ns2.foo.com with dedicated IPs) without them charging you $50 (?) /hour in tech support... PER nameserver.

Sorry NFS, I'm moving away.

Legion3• 15 years ago

I'm sure NFS isn't the only registrar that fits my description. They're just the one I know about.

I would love to hear about others that hold the same standard.

ComputerGuru• 15 years ago

Thanks for pointing that out. I had no idea that this wasn't a "standard" registrar feature. I'm with 1&1 and have been dying to switch forever, but this will make me look twice at any alternatives.

soult2• 15 years ago

That's because they are a webhosting company, not a domain registrar. They offer domains at a cost-covering price as a service for their webhosting customers. Technically ns.phx1.nearlyfreespeech.net works just as well as ns1.yourdomain.example, but the latter one requires manual work (adding glue records) because their control panel does not support it.

ohashi• 15 years ago

Actually, NameCheap has had one of the best records in terms of defending domain registrant rights out of almost any registrar. For example, http://www.domainnamenews.com/featured/namecheap-sued-domain...

Good or bad, they aren't giving their customers up until the law orders them to do so. They've never acted as if they were the law as far as I know. So if you want to talk about walking the walk and core values, NameCheap has been doing it as far back I can remember. Their owner owns quiet a few very high profile names and cares very much about the rights of a domain holder.

Disclaimer: I may be biased, I know the owner and think very highly of him.

FooBarWidget• 15 years ago

I too have been a satisfied customer for years. After reading that article about the court case I think even more highly of them now.

chjj• 15 years ago

Happy to say I've been using namecheap for a little while now. Never had a problem with them.

akadien3• 15 years ago

I've been a very happy Namecheap customer for years, and I have steered everyone I know looking for a registrar to them. I moved from EasyDNS and never regretted it. Now, I'm glad to see they are politically enlightened.

jqueryin• 15 years ago

If anyone here works at NameCheap, can I catch a break somehow if I try to transfer all of my domains over? I've got 20+ and hate spending extra money if they aren't up for renewal anytime soon.

tyler_ball• 15 years ago

From the Reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/nmnie/godaddy_supp...

Apparently you can use the coupon code BYEBYEGD and save some money transferring to Namecheap.

krober• 15 years ago

A manager from Namecheap said that there's a deal when you transfer 50+ domains. You might be able to work something out with them for 20+, but the manager didn't respond to a request for a 43 domain transfer, so it seems unlikely.

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

yourapostasy• 15 years ago

Someone could ask Namecheap to allow people to "bundle" a transfer to hit their discount levels. Enable customers to get together and transfer all their domains from a single registrar like GoDaddy all on the same day. Customer Foo has 43 domains, customer Bar has 7 domains, they both transfer all of these domains on the same day and both key in a bundle code. They both show up in the same transfer bundle, so both get the 50 domain discount.

The bundle code could be an extension of the discount code, like Foo would enter BYEBYEGD:Email-addy-of-Bar while Bar enters BYEBYEGD:Email-addy-of-Foo. That type of structure would limit the bundling to two customers coordinating with each other (so Namecheap doesn't lose out on handing out too many discounts). Other structurings of bundles are possible, of course, depending upon Namecheap's internal sales and marketing goals.

radicalcakes• 15 years ago

I'm glad I started using Namecheap instead of Godaddy. I was inexperienced about registrars at that time...it was Russian Roulette choosing the right registrar. Thank goodness Namecheap's interface wooed me over GoDaddy's. I beat the bullet.

tsycho• 15 years ago

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to transfer domains from Godaddy to Namecheap:

http://blog.jeffepstein.me/post/14629857835/a-step-by-step-g...

PS> I didn't write the guide. I am not affiliated to Namecheap. I just found it useful.

iSloth• 15 years ago

Quote "Let us be clear: Namecheap is not in favor of SOPA as it has been proposed."

Yes that's very clear, the agree is some kind of SOPA...

zdgman• 15 years ago

Just moved my two domains over to Namecheap from Godaddy. I then went and purchase a third domain directly from Namecheap that I want to use for a side project. Not a crazy amount of money by any means but ever little bit counts.

ballstothewalls• 15 years ago

namecheap isnt saying "no" to SOPA; they are saying "yes" to all the transfers from godaddy.

P.S. I <3 namcheap

ilanrabinovitch• 15 years ago

Unfortunately you do not have DNSSEC or IPv6 glue record support though.

Namecheap.com: We say no to SOPA

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