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Go Daddy Rivals Aim to Capitalize on SOPA Controversy

Go Daddy Rivals Aim to Capitalize on SOPA Controversy
Go Daddy rivals including Hover, Name.com, and Namecheap are still looking to capitalize on the world's largest domain registrar's initial decision to support the Stop Online Piracy Act. All four firms continue to offer discounted transfer costs and other enticements to convince website owners to transfer their business away from Go Daddy. A potential Go Daddy exodus could hit its climax Thursday, which has been proclaimed Move Your Domain Day by Namecheap. A thread on Reddit had previously called for a Go Daddy boycott on Thursday.

Recently, Go Daddy was roundly criticized for its public support of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill currently making its way through Congress and widely derided by the tech community. Go Daddy announced Friday that it would no longer support the bill.

The bill is intended to curb online piracy of movies, television shows, music and counterfeit goods by choking off financial support to copyright infringing sites based outside the United States. The bill would also require search engines to remove infringing sites from their indexes, and DNS providers would not be allowed to direct traffic to these sites. Critics of the legislation have called the bill an attempt to create a "U.S. censorship regime."

If you've soured on Go Daddy or just looking for a cheap way to transfer a domain to a new registrar here's a breakdown of three deals you can take advantage of.

Namecheap's day

Go Daddy Rivals Aim to Capitalize on SOPA Controversy
Namecheap is offering domain name transfers for $7 for .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info sites using the coupon code SOPASUCKS. For every domain name transferred using the coupon code, Namecheap will donate $1 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group opposed to the piracy bill.

Namecheap is also saying on its Twitter account that the $7 includes an extra year added to your domain's expiration date. Namecheap on Tuesday said it had already received more than 40,000 domain name transfers in the past week. It's not clear how many of those domains came from Go Daddy. Namecheap typically charges between $5 and $25 for domain transfers depending on the site's top-level domain (.com, .biz, .us, etc.).

Name.com's year-end bash

Go Daddy Rivals Aim to Capitalize on SOPA Controversy
Until the end of 2011, Name.com is offering 10 percent off domain transfers for .com, .net, .org, .tv, .info, .in, .us, .co, .me, and .tel sites with the promo code STOPSOPA. The company is also offering 40 percent off its website hosting plans using the same promo code. Name.com charges between $7 and $39 for a domain name transfer including a one-year extension.

Hover above SOPA

Go Daddy Rivals Aim to Capitalize on SOPA Controversy
Hover is offering a domain name transfer for $9 with the promo code SOPA. The fee includes DNS hosting, removes your name and address from public whois records, and adds an extra year to your registration. Hover typically charges $10 for domain name transfers (excluding .co domains).

Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul) on Twitter and Google+, and with Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.

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