This is something to think about for anyone who runs a website with user content (ie. blog, forum, ar15.com).

On Jan. 24 GoDaddy pulled the registration of www.seclists.org with 52 seconds notice to the owner. The reason? One of the mailing lists he archives had a list of MySpace users and passwords posted to it. They didn’t warn him, they didn’t ask him to remove them, they just pulled the registration. They aren’t even the hosting provider for the domain.

In an interview with CNet publication news.com they report:

When asked if GoDaddy would remove the registration for a news site like CNET News.com, if a reader posted illegal information in a discussion forum and editors could not be immediately reached over a holiday, Jones replied: “I don’t know…It’s a case-by-case basis.”

Why should you care? With the popularity of blogs and forums on todays internet it is simple for anyone to post information that a overly-reactive registrar could use as grounds for shutting down a site. A malicious user could easily post credit card numbers, private information, or the same MySpace password list and get your site shut down.

Me? I’m moving all my domains over to www.namecheap.com, who have this clause in their EULA:

You also agree that Namecheap shall have the right in its sole discretion to suspend, cancel, transfer or otherwise modify a domain name registration upon seven (7) calendar days prior written notice, or at such time as Namecheap receives a properly authenticated order from a court of competent jurisdiction, or arbitration award, requiring the suspension, cancellation transfer or modification of the domain name
registration.