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I still don't get it. What's in it for them? Have they got connections to big media?

by chalst 15y ago

revscat 15y ago
The CEO of GoDaddy is a hardcore Republican. They tend to be more authoritarian than other people. Like you, I see no direct financial benefit to GoDaddy in supporting SOPA. I suspect this is simply that authoritarian tendency in action.
- danso 15y ago
  This is not a partisan issue. One of the most vehement opposers of SOPA is Darrell Issa, a staunch California conservative. On the other hand, Dianne Feinstein, whose constituency includes the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, is for the bill.
  - revscat 15y ago
    Perhaps I should have emphasized "authoritarian" more. And Sen. Feinstein's constituency is the entire state of California. She has received a lot of money from the entertainment industry, including the MPAA, Disney, Sony, and others. But you are correct: this is not a partisan issue. I was simply trying to guess at the motives of GoDaddy's CEO. Since it was a guess, it will obviously be imperfect.
    - AndyKelley 15y ago
      But you derived your guess from his political party. This is fundamentally incompatible with thinking that this is not a partisan issue. So your guess isn't consistent with your own beliefs. (Unless you've changed them since the other comment.)
- paulhauggis 15y ago
  "They tend to be more authoritarian than other people" The left is just as authoritarian. Mostly revolving around taxes (IE: forcing one group of people to pay more taxes than another because they don't need or deserve it).
  - scarmig 15y ago
    An abuse of the word authoritarian. Shutting down freedom of speech, indefinite detention, arbitrary expropriation are authoritarian. A non-flat tax is not. Not that the "left," insofar as it exists in the federal government, is consistently much better on those issues.
    - paulhauggis 15y ago
      "An abuse of the word authoritarian." Only because it goes against your personal views. "Shutting down freedom of speech, indefinite detention, arbitrary expropriation are authoritarian. A non-flat tax is not." I'm not talking about taxes now. I'm talking about what taxes would be if the left had it their way (much higher), which in my mind, is authoritarian. Take a look at every single hard-left country in Europe: taxes are astonishingly high and the government has much more control over citizens' daily lives. When lots of people are dependent on the government through large social nets, they will almost never vote against the hand that feeds them. As you go too far right or left, you meet in the the same place and it's something I really don't want running my life. Taxes are important, but we need to have a balance.
      - scarmig 15y ago
        In politics especially, it takes a constant struggle to keep in mind that words have actual meanings. They're not just matters of opinion, and "authoritarian" isn't just a gussied up way of saying "ewww gross!" about a political matter or position. It is a real word with a real meaning and a real history. Consider, for instance, the Kirkpatrick doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkpatrick_Doctrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkpatrick_Doctrine). It's possible to debate the plausibility and soundness of it as a foreign policy principle, but that's because authoritarian has a real meaning beyond "ANTI FREEDOM!! (TM)". It has to do with how the center of political power interacts with its opposition, particularly in contrast to how totalitarian states do so. Note that the countries which had the greatest amount of government intervention in the economy and actually did take a bunch of guns from people are very explicitly not authoritarian: they're used in contrast to the authoritarian states of (mostly) Latin America, which were hardly high-tax or anti-gun.
- cynwoody 15y ago
  This is simply rent-seeking on GoDaddy's part. It's not authoritarianism. It is just greed. SOPA will increase cost and complexity for all providers. GoDaddy figures they're better at coping with SOPA's implementation than potential competitors. Thus, SOPA will be a useful barrier to the entry of disruptive competition, which will have to develop their own SOPA compliance systems.

I still don't get it. What's in it for them? Have they got connections to big media?

by chalst 15y ago

I still don't get it. What's in it for them? Have they got connections to big media?

The CEO of GoDaddy is a hardcore Republican. They tend to be more authoritarian than other people. Like you, I see no direct financial benefit to GoDaddy in supporting SOPA. I suspect this is simply that authoritarian tendency in action.

danso 15y ago
This is not a partisan issue. One of the most vehement opposers of SOPA is Darrell Issa, a staunch California conservative. On the other hand, Dianne Feinstein, whose constituency includes the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, is for the bill.
- revscat 15y ago
  Perhaps I should have emphasized "authoritarian" more. And Sen. Feinstein's constituency is the entire state of California. She has received a lot of money from the entertainment industry, including the MPAA, Disney, Sony, and others. But you are correct: this is not a partisan issue. I was simply trying to guess at the motives of GoDaddy's CEO. Since it was a guess, it will obviously be imperfect.
  - AndyKelley 15y ago
    But you derived your guess from his political party. This is fundamentally incompatible with thinking that this is not a partisan issue. So your guess isn't consistent with your own beliefs. (Unless you've changed them since the other comment.)
paulhauggis 15y ago
"They tend to be more authoritarian than other people" The left is just as authoritarian. Mostly revolving around taxes (IE: forcing one group of people to pay more taxes than another because they don't need or deserve it).
- scarmig 15y ago
  An abuse of the word authoritarian. Shutting down freedom of speech, indefinite detention, arbitrary expropriation are authoritarian. A non-flat tax is not. Not that the "left," insofar as it exists in the federal government, is consistently much better on those issues.
  - paulhauggis 15y ago
    "An abuse of the word authoritarian." Only because it goes against your personal views. "Shutting down freedom of speech, indefinite detention, arbitrary expropriation are authoritarian. A non-flat tax is not." I'm not talking about taxes now. I'm talking about what taxes would be if the left had it their way (much higher), which in my mind, is authoritarian. Take a look at every single hard-left country in Europe: taxes are astonishingly high and the government has much more control over citizens' daily lives. When lots of people are dependent on the government through large social nets, they will almost never vote against the hand that feeds them. As you go too far right or left, you meet in the the same place and it's something I really don't want running my life. Taxes are important, but we need to have a balance.
    - scarmig 15y ago
      In politics especially, it takes a constant struggle to keep in mind that words have actual meanings. They're not just matters of opinion, and "authoritarian" isn't just a gussied up way of saying "ewww gross!" about a political matter or position. It is a real word with a real meaning and a real history. Consider, for instance, the Kirkpatrick doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkpatrick_Doctrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkpatrick_Doctrine). It's possible to debate the plausibility and soundness of it as a foreign policy principle, but that's because authoritarian has a real meaning beyond "ANTI FREEDOM!! (TM)". It has to do with how the center of political power interacts with its opposition, particularly in contrast to how totalitarian states do so. Note that the countries which had the greatest amount of government intervention in the economy and actually did take a bunch of guns from people are very explicitly not authoritarian: they're used in contrast to the authoritarian states of (mostly) Latin America, which were hardly high-tax or anti-gun.
cynwoody 15y ago
This is simply rent-seeking on GoDaddy's part. It's not authoritarianism. It is just greed. SOPA will increase cost and complexity for all providers. GoDaddy figures they're better at coping with SOPA's implementation than potential competitors. Thus, SOPA will be a useful barrier to the entry of disruptive competition, which will have to develop their own SOPA compliance systems.