Twitter buzzed with news about GoDodady supported SOPA yesterday (STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT, just in today, GoDaddy drops support for SOPA). This incident forced many people to transferred their domains from GoDaddy to other registrars that opposing SOPA.
What is SOPA? SOPA is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011. SOPA will allow corporations to block the domains of websites that are “capable of” or “seem to encourage” copyright infringement. Once a domain is blocked, nobody can access it, unless they’ve memorized the I.P. address.
You can read an article from A LIST APART, SAY NO TO SOPA to understand why this bill could destroy the Internet as we know it
Domain Terms
A domain name is a human-readable Internet address that’s uniquely registered to an individual or organization. A domain name is used in the Domain Name System (DNS) to link the text address to server information, such as an Internet protocol or IP address, the location of the mail server that receives messages for a domain or sub domain, or more obscure elements like a cryptographic signature that can confirm the rightful owner of a domain. The domain registrar acts as a middleman to let you request a domain name, and interacts with a central registry for a given top-level domain (TLD), whether that’s .com, .org, .uk, .aero, or one of many others. This ensures the same name isn’t registered twice
Transfer
a. Old Registrar
1. Domain name age is at least 90 days old. You don’t change Administrative Contact in earlier 90 days
2. Cancel Private Registration for your domain. Private registration hide real Contact information from WHOIS, that usually add-on, you should pay for this service. You should understand cancelling Private Registration does’t mean you’ll get refund.
3. Unlock the domain name. You have to be logged in on your registrar’s website to the account, and follow its instructions to unlock the domain. Unlocking happens immediately
4. Make sure the domain name is not using registrar’s NameServer. If you are, switch those to the name servers provided by your hosting company
5. Request an authorization code to make the transfer.
b. New registrar
1. Set up an account
2. Follow the prompts to transfer a domain. For some TLDs, you may not need an authorization code code, but simply approve the transfer via a link sent via email. For others, the process of getting a code is somewhat involved. If you failed to unlock the domain or your current registrar didn’t follow procedures, you won’t be able to get beyond this step until that’s done.
3. Pay for the domain
Final step, check your old registrar. For Some TLDs, you may need to approve/accept transfer from their control panel
DONE!