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Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

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Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#381

Post by lxgr »

pessimizer wrote: post #357
leafo wrote: post #31

I'm the one running itch.io, so here's some more context for you: From what I can tell, some person made a fan page for an existing Funko Pop video game (Funko Fusion), with links to the official site and screenshots of the game. The BrandShield software is probably instructed to eradicate all "unauthorized" use of their trademark, so they sent reports independently to our host and registrar claiming there was "fraud…

[flagged]

> it's no one's fault and no one's to blame

There's obviously somebody to blame. Somebody getting a legitimate domain taken down for hours should have consequences, if only to make mistakes more expensive for trigger-happy automated "IP protection" services (the only signal they'll probably understand).

The question is just if itch.io has the funding and energy to actually pursue the matter legally, now that it's technically resolved. I couldn't blame them for just changing registrars instead.

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#382

Post by Scramblejams »

cipheredStones wrote: post #209
hresvelgr wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's surprising that this happened at all. Isn't it in most business's best interests to be aware of their most high-profile customers? If this was an automatic process, it's pretty disappointing that it even occurred. If I was running a SaaS, I'd probably want to mark my important accounts so an actual human has to investigate any raised alerts instead of being dealt with by a cron.

Something being in a business's best interests is very far from a guarantee that it'll happen. I've worked on a team in a household-name big tech company where our mission was almost exactly "make sure we're not blowing up our most important customers for no reason". It's not nearly as easy as it sounds: defining who's important is hard, and defining what should and shouldn't be allowed is hard, and then implementing…

Sounds like you could write a series of blog posts I’d like to read!

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#383

Post by joquarky »

terminalbraid wrote: post #204
breakingcups wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filing false reports like this should count as fraud.

I'm in the outraged crowd and there should be pretty serious consequences, but it is important in the interest of justice to differentiate between fraud, negligence, and gross incompetence.

Discerning intent is a waste of time and resources in cases like this.

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#384

Post by lxgr »

moralestapia wrote: post #201
sureglymop wrote: post #32

A similar thing has happened to me before. There is a company with the same name as my surname with a trademark for it. When I registered a domain with my surname in it, the registrar had an automatic process in place that checked for this trademark and took away access of the domain. So far so good. The problem was that the registrar and its support then ghosted me and also never refunded me for the money already pa…

Trademarks are country specific while domain names are not. Would be interesting to know what happens if they took this to trial (in which country though).

Of course domain registrations are also subject to national law. .io in particular is (currently) under UK jurisdiction.

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#385

Post by rexreed »

Sindisil wrote: post #311
rexreed wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I coincidentally just this past week ran into a major issue with Namecheap on a fraudulent domain marketplace sale that they did not resolve properly or in a timely manner. They deserve their meh reputation. They were decent about a decade ago. Come renewal my domains up for sale are moving to Dynadot. Was considering porkbun but I sense they are heading the namecheap way.

> but I sense they are heading the namecheap way What makes you say that?

Some of the comments and feedback I'm seeing in the reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/PorkBun/. But then again I don't have any firsthand experience with these issues, so who knows. Are you having good experiences with Porkbun?

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#386

Post by amyjess »

jcranmer wrote: post #329
PostOnce wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is the kind of advice a good lawyer would give. BrandShield, Funko, and iwantmyname all caused serious financial harm through, at a minimum, tortious negligence. I'm not a lawyer, but even a yokel like me knows there's more to this legally than a shrug and "the software did it".

IANAL either, but my guess is that itch.io has precisely 0 plausible legal recourse here. The strongest case would be something along the lines of breach of contract via the domain registrar, but your standard internet contract has a term in it that amounts to "we get the right to fuck you", so I assume that applies here, so no breach of contract actually exists. This also kills every claim that's dependent on breach…

> you need something like actual malice--specific knowledge of falsity

IANAL, but as I understand it the definition of malice also includes "reckless disregard for the truth". I'm sure a good lawyer can argue that not having human lawyers review, investigate, and confirm computer-generated abuse reports before sending them to outsiders constitutes a reckless disregard for the truth.

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#387

Post by 6bb32646d83d »

One of my .xyz domain was taken down because one it somehow ended up on a single spam list as Phishing (it was not hosting any phishing, and all the code is actually open source).

I never was able to get it cleared. It's crazy the power that those spam list can have and they care very little about false positives

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#388

Post by roryokane »

lxgr wrote: post #378
Modified3019 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“iwantmyname”, from leafo’s post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42364033

I find it curious that this (purely factual and correct) comment got downvoted/flagged into oblivion.

How would you know whether Modified3019’s comment is factual and correct? sureglymop wrote “note: this was a different registrar than mentioned here”, and they haven’t written any other comments in the thread that might identify the registrar.

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#389

Post by meaydinli »

leafo wrote: post #31

I'm the one running itch.io, so here's some more context for you: From what I can tell, some person made a fan page for an existing Funko Pop video game (Funko Fusion), with links to the official site and screenshots of the game. The BrandShield software is probably instructed to eradicate all "unauthorized" use of their trademark, so they sent reports independently to our host and registrar claiming there was "fraud…

Behavior from "iwantmyname" doesn't sound like they deserve your business anymore.

Re: Itch.io Taken Down by Funko

#390

Post by nonplus »

leafo wrote: post #31

I'm the one running itch.io, so here's some more context for you: From what I can tell, some person made a fan page for an existing Funko Pop video game (Funko Fusion), with links to the official site and screenshots of the game. The BrandShield software is probably instructed to eradicate all "unauthorized" use of their trademark, so they sent reports independently to our host and registrar claiming there was "fraud…

I hope you come out of this in good shape. I try to get all my (digital) TTRPGs and indie games through your platform.
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