Hi all,
As you know XBOX360ASYLUM.COM will expire in January and XBOX360ASYLUM.CA will expire in August. I do not plan on renewing the name, having chosen to go with AUTOMATICRESPAWN.COM instead. I have been working for the past few months) getting ready for this change but all this came to a screeching halt a few weeks ago. Why you ask? I am glad you did ask.
It was made public knowledge that GoDaddy supported the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). While I am against piracy, I cannot support SOPA. SOPA is a thinly veiled control mechanism that will end free-speech on the internet if passed. Under SOPA, the US allows the government to order that ISPs block customers' access to "infringing" websites. What is an infringing website? Who knows as they do not need to prove guilt, it is up to the website owner to prove innocence. During the time (and money) needed to prove that your website has been wrongfully accused, it is effectively dead to the world.
Why should I (and you care)? Let’s say I write a very provoking article that accuses a major company of wrongful activities. This company could pull a few strings and have a "paid" off senator shut down my website. I am not Google, Yahoo, Amazon or Facebook. I do not have the resources or lawyers needed to fight such a conviction. If (when) SOPA passes it will be the censorship stamp that governments have been craving for since the Internet became the voice of the People.
I cannot directly influence SOPA, but I can talk with my $$$. If GoDaddy supports SOPA, I will no longer support GoDaddy.
What does this mean for the Asylum?
I have since moved my registration and hosting for AUTOMATICRESPAWN.COM to HostPapa. The company is Canadian owned and offers reasonable rates (actually better than GoDaddy). The only problem is that all hosting plans are php based with MySQL while all my coding is done for ASP.NET and SQL.
My task for the next few months:
Install and configure Joomla that will provide content management for AUTOMATICRESPAWN.COM
Install and configure phpBB that will provide the new forums.
Export everything from XBOX360ASYLUM.CA to AUTOMATICRESPAWN.COM via custom SQL scripts.
I will let you all know of the progress.
ps/ GoDaddy has since flip-flopped on their SOPA support, but I have not changed my decision to bail. Fool me once.