GoDaddy's Chief SOPA Supporter Now Running For Arizona Governor Highlighting Her 'Internet' Experience
from the oh-really-now? dept
As anyone who followed the SOPA fight remembers, GoDaddy was an early (and vocal) supporter of SOPA. This was mainly the work of its General Counsel, Christine Jones, who (prior to SOPA specifically being released) testified before Congress in support of a law sounding very much like SOPA (supporting making search engines, service providers, credit card companies and others liable). When SOPA was released, she wrote an op-ed strongly in favor of it for Politico (who appear to have made it disappear), calling the bill "a welcome step in the right direction." She did this even though -- under the bill's initial definition -- GoDaddy itself was clearly "dedicated to theft of property."As you probably remember, the internet backlash was strong, and GoDaddy had to drop its support, giving the company a major black eye. Since then, a very large percentage of the management team has changed, including Jones, who left the company a few months after SOPA collapsed.
What's she up to these days? Oh, she's just running for governor of Arizona... on the basis of her wonderful "internet" experience. That seems... wrong. The "about" section on her campaign page kicks off with this:
Christine made it a priority to establish Go Daddy as a leader in the fight to make the Internet better and safer for users, particularly children. She has testified numerous times before U.S. Congressional Committees in Washington, D.C. about various issues related to the Internet. She also helped drive federal Internet-related legislation, including laws to keep the Web safe from child predators and rogue online pharmacies. For example, she helped push through bills such as the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act, the Protect Our Children Act, and the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act. These bills were signed into law by President Bush in October 2008 and have been used by law enforcement and others to shut down illegal online drug sellers and to prosecute online child predators.Nothing about SOPA, you see. But she does highlight these kinds of grandstanding laws that have great titles that sound like they're trying to make the internet safer from evil things like fake drugs and sexual predators. In reality, most of these bills have done nothing particularly useful. That's because they were all about getting headlines so politicians could claim they were doing something about some "big problem" without tackling the actual underlying problems. In some cases, they have serious problems. The "Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators" made all registered sex offenders register their emails in a weak attempt to keep them off of social networks (even when the "offenders" did not have a history of being predators or anything like that).
These are the kinds of bills that someone supports because they want more political cred, not because they have any interest in actually solving real problems. Either way, it just seems really wrong for a person who was heavily involved in supporting SOPA in the early days to now be running for political office arguing that she was focused on making the internet "a better place."
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Filed Under: arizona, christine jones, copyright, grandstanding, internet, protect the kids, sopa
Companies: godaddy
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dick hea dof the year award goes to
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GoDaddy's history is worth exploring
Their early history includes copious self-promoting spamming; they then graduated into mass registration/hosting of spammers, phishers, malware, etc., while simultaneously making a grandstanding show of their utterly ineffective "abuse desk" -- which frequently forwarded complaints TO THE ABUSERS. And of course they've supported any kind of legislation -- no matter how awful for the Internet -- that they think will boost their profits.
So this is really no surprise: it's exactly what we've come to expect from the scumbags at GoDaddy.
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A ringing endorsement it is not.
(* Been watching George Carlin's works recently)
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...the internet backlash was strong, and GoDaddy had to drop its support, giving the company a major black eye.
Geez, you'd think that someone touting their "internet experience" would realize that the internet never forgets anything.
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Just what we need, more short sighted politicians!
-She could borrow tons of money for lavish and expensive things for the state, and then be SHOCKED when she realizes the state has to pay that money back years later, and has to pay big amounts in interest every year on that money to!
-She could shut down state services that she and everyone else benefit from, and then be SHOCKED when she can't use those state services! For example, she could make the decision to shut down all the state run rest stops to save some money by not having to clean and maintain them (a few states have done this in recent years) and then be SHOCKED when out campaigning that she can't use the public rest stops because they're closed!
-She could raise taxes on everyone, and then be SHOCKED come tax day that she's owes more in taxes then she expected!
-She could pass laws that make things she does everyday a criminal act, only to be SHOCKED when the police arrest her, and her attorney general files criminal charges against her!
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Re:
Short, gets to the point, the point being that yet another piece of shit is running for governor.
Nothing good ever came from GoDaddy.
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top 10 Go Daddy girl outfits Christine should wear
Poorly photoshopped, but amusing nonetheless.
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Thanks for the heads-up!
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That should be like a taboo word for them, 'liability'.
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perhaps there are those that will be keen to repay the favor?
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I find this funny in light of GoDaddy having used commercials loaded with sexual innuendo to sell their product.
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Oct 23rd, 2013 @ 1:54pm
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Re:
a long and often angry piece of writing that usually accuses someone of something or complains about something
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/screed
- doesn't look all that long
- didn't find any anger
- didn't find any accusations
- not really complaints, but they are justified
Not really a screed then. Care to pick another word from your bag of tricks?
diatribe:
an angry and usually long speech or piece of writing that strongly criticizes someone or something
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diatribe
- didn't find any anger
- doesn't look all that long
- not really criticism, but is justified
Not really a diatribe then. Care to pick another word from your bag of tricks?
Why do you not identify your reasons for your, most likely, support of this person?
You must be new here, otherwise you would be aware of past discussions in which most if not all supporters of SOPA were mentioned, no special treatment.
I find your lack of objectivity to be quite telling.
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Here's a funny video Christine made herself
...the former GoDaddy attorney seems to misunderstand nearly everything about Arizona politics and geography in one fell swoop.
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Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act
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