This domain is no longer registered with GoDaddy in protest of GoDaddy’s support for the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA.

It is with a heavy heart that I leave GoDaddy. For years the company offered inexpensive registration, stellar customer support, a suite of powerful tools with which to manage domains, and a number of helpful (if somewhat over priced) services and add-ons for customers who wanted to use them. Sure its corporate persona was a bit raunchy and the registration process was festooned with expensive and unnecessary products and services to inflate the bottom line, but in terms of price and support GoDaddy was and is a class act.

But that’s not enough.

The existential threat posed by SOPA to the very foundations of the Internet as we understand it can not be ignored and GoDaddy’s support of the bill — even now that that support has been withdrawn — was more than enough to send me and thousands of other technology professional packing.

The lesson of GoDaddy is this: there is no crime more abhorrent than to betray the very livelihoods of your customers. If the position of your company seeks to jepordize not just my ability to purchase your service but my ability to feed my family than no amount of discounts, stellar service, or witty ads will convince me to stay.

Of course, GoDaddy is a drop in the bucket; the list of SOPA supporters is long indeed and honestly very few of them will face a boycott because of that support. The internet is a mercurial and savage disciplinarian, however, and while few SOPA supporters will face the kind of reaction GoDaddy endured, many will no doubt fear it. The question is, will that fear translate into a change in policy?