seclists.org from the lemmings and non-lemmings

For any particular issue, you can pretty much predict how the Internet will respond.

Take this story from Wired:

Computer security guru Fyodor...reports waking up yesterday to find his website SecLists.org essentially removed from the web by his domain registrar, GoDaddy. After a bunch of phone calls to GoDaddy, he eventually got them to explain why: Because MySpace asked them too [sic].

This elicited a near-Pavlovian response in most quarters. Take this example:

GoDaddy chief Bob Parsons is a big supporter of free speech. He’s also a big supporter of privacy as a way to do this by promoting domain whois privacy services.

That’s why the internet world was shocked today to learn that GoDaddy suspended a domain name, seclists.org, based on the content on that site....

To make matters worse, GoDaddy general counsel Christine Jones responded by saying GoDaddy’s terms of service say the company “reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever”, according to the CNET article.

That attitude should make people think twice about registering domains with the company.

And some people are thinking:

Actions like these make me hesitant to recommend or use GoDaddy.com for any domain registration or hosting.

But other people are...well, they're thinking:

This raises questions on Internet free-speech and Internet governance, some might say. But in my opinion, it’s probably a good thing *IN THIS CASE*, as innumerable MySpace users were potentially at risk.

However, it is debatable whether there truly was a risk here:

The latest move, however, attempted to re-capture information that had already spread on the Internet for more than a week.

Meanwhile, as of this evening (it's still kinda sorta "evening" in the Pacific time zone), Bob Parsons is writing about other topics:

Our 2nd Super Bowl Ad Rejected by CBS – See it here! Why it was rejected. 5 times the channels on your TV! The switch to digital – it’s sooner than you think!

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

The GoDaddy ToS forbids hosting what they call "morally objectionable activities".

Perhaps this whole thing is just another Bob Parsons Super Bowl - whoops, "big game" - publicity stunt. Actually, I'm joking - if Parsons truly wanted to get people's attention, he wouldn't do it in a way that would adversely impact on GoDaddy's customer relations.