Oct 16, 2008 : Go Daddy Fights Rogue Pharmacies

📅 October 16, 2008 - Domain registrar and web hosting provider Go Daddy (godaddy.com 👉 Total Reviews: 81
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The legislation seeks to stop rogue pharmacies from conducting business online and help prevent the purchase of drugs online without a valid prescription.  

The new law requires online pharmacies to comply with state laws in which they do business, as well as publicly display its compliance and registration with the Drug Enforcement Administration. This in turn allows federal officials to provide Web companies a list of legally-approved pharmacies.

The information will enable Web companies to more effectively find illegitimate pharmacies that often target teenagers, as well as making it mandatory for Web-based pharmacies to sell drugs to those patients with a valid prescription. The patients must also have been examined at least once by a healthcare provider.

"Go Daddy helped shape this legislation because we needed the tools to shut down unscrupulous online pharmacies," says Bob Parsons, Go Daddy CEO and founder. "Prescription drug abuse among teenagers is at epidemic proportions. Now we can help by shutting down companies that sell dangerous, illegal drugs on the Web."

In 2007, Go Daddy's 24-hour Abuse Department suspended more than 1,300 different websites affiliated with rogue pharmacies.

The company says that even without the help of the new law it was already on pace this year to increase that number by nearly tenfold.

A few months ago, Go Daddy general counsel Christine Jones testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security about how illegitimate pharmacies are rapidly spreading across the Internet and the integral that the role government has in resolving this drug problem online.

The Federal Trade Commission announced earlier this week it shut down one of the world's largest spam operations, where spammers solicited various drugs they claimed were supplied by a US-licensed pharmacy, but were actually shipped from India.

US Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan, the bill's lead sponsor, and Congresswoman Lois Capps of California have both singled-out Go Daddy's support for the legislation, both in Committee and on the House floor.

The original bill, "The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act," was named after a California teenager who died after overdosing on Vicodin which he purchased online.

Go Daddy has previously made significant efforts to actively support legislation against online crimes.

On Tuesday, President Bush signed another bill supported by Go Daddy, which prohibits offenders from sending live images of child abuse via the Internet and also authorizes money to hire FBI agents who work on child exploitation cases.