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Wikipedia gone daddy from Go Daddy

The Wikimedia Foundation says it has completed the transfer of its domain portfolio away from Go Daddy, a move made in response to the registrar's position on the Stop Online Piracy Act.

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The Wikimedia Foundation has completed the process of transferring its domains away from Go Daddy in response to Go Daddy's initial support for the Stop Online Piracy Act, the foundation said this week.

"As the provider of the 5th most visited Web properties in the world, the Foundation cares deeply about who handles our domain names. We had been deliberating a move from GoDaddy for some time--our legal department felt the company was not the best fit for our domain needs--and we began actively seeking other domain management providers in December 2011. GoDaddy's initial support of (SOPA)...reaffirmed our decision to end the relationship," the foundation said in a blog post yesterday.

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The foundation's domain portfolio is now being handled by San Francisco-based registrar MarkMonitor.

In December, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales tweeted that the domain transfer would take place, saying Go Daddy's "position on #sopa is unacceptable to us." That followed an anti-Go Daddy thread on digerati site Reddit, and a vow by the creator of icanhascheezburger.com and other sites to move 1,000 domains held by parent company Cheezburger, Inc. to another registrar if Go Daddy did not change its stance on SOPA.

The same day as Wales' tweet, Go Daddy customers transferred 21,000 domains to different registrars, and Go Daddy backpedaled on its position, saying, "Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to (SOPA). But we can clearly do better.... Go Daddy will support (the legislation) when and if the Internet community supports it."

The company later denounced the legislation in a more unequivocal fashion in response to a planned "Dump Go Daddy Day."

It's not the first time Go Daddy has misjudged a response to its actions. Earlier in 2011, CEO Bob Parsons ruffled feathers when he posted to his blog a video of his elephant-shooting exploits.

The Wikimedia Foundation said in its blog post that the transfer to MarkMonitor had gone off without a hitch.