5 ms·

Actually that's exactly what I thought when I saw the list yesterday. Several of those companies send people to Demo Day, and when I saw the list I thought: we

by pg 15y ago

Actually that's exactly what I thought when I saw the list yesterday. Several of those companies send people to Demo Day, and when I saw the list I thought: we should stop inviting them. So yes, we'll remove anyone from those companies from the Demo Day invite list.

solipsist 15y ago
Ok, awesome! Glad to see that much commitment.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
TheIronYuppie 15y ago
pg - this is bad ass. Way to put your money where your mouth is.
middayc 15y ago
Awesome. More people with influence should (be brave enough to) take their part of action if they think something sucks!
jimmyjim 15y ago
Just wondering here -- would you go so far as to consider the domain registrars of YC hopefuls when going through the application process, or would their choice hold essentially zero weight in whether they get accepted or not?
- intenex 15y ago
  I doubt it'll become a topic of conversation what your registrar is..but if it does happen to come up and you happen to say GoDaddy, judging from pg's post above the answer is probably yes, he will hold it against you :) Funding a company that supports a company that supports SOPA is just one step away from supporting a company that supports SOPA...which in turn is just one step away from supporting SOPA. Scary, isn't it?
antr 15y ago
lets not forget that GoDaddy's owner is US private equity group KKR. All of KKR's tech portfolio companies should also be banned (if applicable). http://kkr.com/partners/portfolio-partners.php http://kkr.com/partners/portfolio-partners.php
- stephenson 15y ago
  Why? The KKR portfolio is independent companies with independent political standpoints...
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - antr 15y ago
    YC is an investor and has a standpoint. YC is promoting anti-SOPA support outwards and towards its (independent) portfolio companies. KKR is also an investor and also has a standpoint.
    - stephenson 15y ago
      But its not KKR listet on the pro SOPA list its one, and only one of there portefolie companies. KKR are not (in the same way as YC isent) responsible for its portefolies standpoints.
      - dataangel 15y ago
        They are not legally liable, which is different from being responsible. Imagine if one of their portfolio companies was a child porn distributor. You wouldn't defend KKR, because clearly they have some choice in who they put in their portfolio, and a child porn distributor is an immoral choice. Holding a SOPA supporting company is also a (albeit less egregious) poor choice. Taking away invites of their portfolio companies provides motivation for them to look into this sort of thing when choosing companies in the future.
      - danssig 15y ago
rdl 15y ago
Is Amex the only card association (well, sort of) left? Visa and Mastercard both are on the list.
- hub_ 15y ago
  Remember their take on Wikileaks? No surprise. Use cash.
  - rdl 15y ago
    Actually it looks like Visa and MC were some of the most reasonable in the hearings -- they said there would be lots of costs to comply, and while they didn't support visa/mc being used for any illegal activity, ...
- steventruong 15y ago
  Discover
aestetix_ 15y ago
pg, thank you so much for doing this. Quite a ballsy move, and highly respectable.
180grl 15y ago
I'm talking to my Congressman on the phone right now. What do you think should be altered so the bill can achieve its original purpose? Or will nothing help?
- andrewfong 15y ago
  You could try saying "nothing". Hollywood is actually doing quite alright, piracy or not. Alternatively, you could suggest Ron Wyden's OPEN bill. OPEN nixes the the DNS filtering, but keeps some of the follow-the-money measures in SOPA. More importantly, it also requires a full court hearing before any action can be taken.
- eek04 15y ago
  I think it's very hard to make anything help. Here's a shortlist of things that should be fixed to avoid it horribly hurting innocent people, but I doubt it's enough - there seems likely to be more things in there. The original purpose of the law seems to be "Give the 'intellectual property' industries a blunt instrument to attack perceived violators", so making it less blunt probably violate the original purpose anyway. Stop removing DNS entries; that's attempting to censor things that aren't in the US for non-US citizens. Require a full court proceeding to stop advertisements and payment processing in the US - ie, no "court order", it has to be a full lawsuit with the ability to defend. Require the removal of access to only affect a specific, listed set of companies. Require the company requesting the blocking to pay reasonable costs of blocking. Remove the making of copyright infringement into a felony; each of these things can easily happen by mistake.
davidjrodriguez 15y ago
+1
marcanthonyrosa 15y ago
I'm sure you've seen the list of supporters (http://1.usa.gov/t7Wpo8 http://1.usa.gov/t7Wpo8). Even the list itself is a half-assed job by pro-SOPAs to illustrate Congressional support for the bill. Unless, of course, the fragrance company Coty Inc has been seeing a lot of their fragrances being pirated online.
hub_ 15y ago
Thanks pg ! This is the kind of effort that make a difference.
steventruong 15y ago
Are you guys going to stop using Mastercard, VISA, and no idea who your internet provider is but if its Comcast, them too? I did another thread on here regarding this as well and I'm curious how far people are willing to go to prove a point or are they only singling out whatever makes sense. The above three have some strong strong monopolies or close to it so it makes things much harder. GoDaddy just happens to be one of the easy ones people can choose to switch from.
- jon2512chua 15y ago
  I don't speak for everyone but personally, I'm not against all companies that are pro-SOPA, just the Internet firms who I think should know better. As for others like the music or motion picture industries, I understand and respect their support for SOPA.
pajop 15y ago
Paul - you've always been one of my heroes - this takes a lot of intestinal fortitude - I salute you!
Yipster 15y ago
This is Awesome.
robalex 15y ago
Even though the national/local press does not follow this very closely in Europe, we are making as much effort as possible to bring it to everyone's attention in order to stimulate participation along the same lines as yours. where possible I/we shall boycott over here also.

by pg 15y ago

solipsist 15y ago

Ok, awesome! Glad to see that much commitment.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

TheIronYuppie 15y ago

pg - this is bad ass. Way to put your money where your mouth is.

middayc 15y ago

Awesome. More people with influence should (be brave enough to) take their part of action if they think something sucks!

jimmyjim 15y ago

Just wondering here -- would you go so far as to consider the domain registrars of YC hopefuls when going through the application process, or would their choice hold essentially zero weight in whether they get accepted or not?

intenex 15y ago
I doubt it'll become a topic of conversation what your registrar is..but if it does happen to come up and you happen to say GoDaddy, judging from pg's post above the answer is probably yes, he will hold it against you :) Funding a company that supports a company that supports SOPA is just one step away from supporting a company that supports SOPA...which in turn is just one step away from supporting SOPA. Scary, isn't it?

antr 15y ago

lets not forget that GoDaddy's owner is US private equity group KKR. All of KKR's tech portfolio companies should also be banned (if applicable). http://kkr.com/partners/portfolio-partners.php http://kkr.com/partners/portfolio-partners.php

stephenson 15y ago
Why? The KKR portfolio is independent companies with independent political standpoints...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- antr 15y ago
  YC is an investor and has a standpoint. YC is promoting anti-SOPA support outwards and towards its (independent) portfolio companies. KKR is also an investor and also has a standpoint.
  - stephenson 15y ago
    But its not KKR listet on the pro SOPA list its one, and only one of there portefolie companies. KKR are not (in the same way as YC isent) responsible for its portefolies standpoints.
    - dataangel 15y ago
      They are not legally liable, which is different from being responsible. Imagine if one of their portfolio companies was a child porn distributor. You wouldn't defend KKR, because clearly they have some choice in who they put in their portfolio, and a child porn distributor is an immoral choice. Holding a SOPA supporting company is also a (albeit less egregious) poor choice. Taking away invites of their portfolio companies provides motivation for them to look into this sort of thing when choosing companies in the future.
    - danssig 15y ago

rdl 15y ago

Is Amex the only card association (well, sort of) left? Visa and Mastercard both are on the list.

hub_ 15y ago
Remember their take on Wikileaks? No surprise. Use cash.
- rdl 15y ago
  Actually it looks like Visa and MC were some of the most reasonable in the hearings -- they said there would be lots of costs to comply, and while they didn't support visa/mc being used for any illegal activity, ...
steventruong 15y ago
Discover

aestetix_ 15y ago

pg, thank you so much for doing this. Quite a ballsy move, and highly respectable.

180grl 15y ago

I'm talking to my Congressman on the phone right now. What do you think should be altered so the bill can achieve its original purpose? Or will nothing help?

andrewfong 15y ago
You could try saying "nothing". Hollywood is actually doing quite alright, piracy or not. Alternatively, you could suggest Ron Wyden's OPEN bill. OPEN nixes the the DNS filtering, but keeps some of the follow-the-money measures in SOPA. More importantly, it also requires a full court hearing before any action can be taken.
eek04 15y ago
I think it's very hard to make anything help. Here's a shortlist of things that should be fixed to avoid it horribly hurting innocent people, but I doubt it's enough - there seems likely to be more things in there. The original purpose of the law seems to be "Give the 'intellectual property' industries a blunt instrument to attack perceived violators", so making it less blunt probably violate the original purpose anyway. Stop removing DNS entries; that's attempting to censor things that aren't in the US for non-US citizens. Require a full court proceeding to stop advertisements and payment processing in the US - ie, no "court order", it has to be a full lawsuit with the ability to defend. Require the removal of access to only affect a specific, listed set of companies. Require the company requesting the blocking to pay reasonable costs of blocking. Remove the making of copyright infringement into a felony; each of these things can easily happen by mistake.

davidjrodriguez 15y ago

marcanthonyrosa 15y ago

I'm sure you've seen the list of supporters (http://1.usa.gov/t7Wpo8 http://1.usa.gov/t7Wpo8). Even the list itself is a half-assed job by pro-SOPAs to illustrate Congressional support for the bill. Unless, of course, the fragrance company Coty Inc has been seeing a lot of their fragrances being pirated online.

hub_ 15y ago

Thanks pg ! This is the kind of effort that make a difference.

steventruong 15y ago

Are you guys going to stop using Mastercard, VISA, and no idea who your internet provider is but if its Comcast, them too? I did another thread on here regarding this as well and I'm curious how far people are willing to go to prove a point or are they only singling out whatever makes sense. The above three have some strong strong monopolies or close to it so it makes things much harder. GoDaddy just happens to be one of the easy ones people can choose to switch from.

jon2512chua 15y ago
I don't speak for everyone but personally, I'm not against all companies that are pro-SOPA, just the Internet firms who I think should know better. As for others like the music or motion picture industries, I understand and respect their support for SOPA.

pajop 15y ago

Paul - you've always been one of my heroes - this takes a lot of intestinal fortitude - I salute you!

Yipster 15y ago

This is Awesome.

robalex 15y ago

Even though the national/local press does not follow this very closely in Europe, we are making as much effort as possible to bring it to everyone's attention in order to stimulate participation along the same lines as yours. where possible I/we shall boycott over here also.