- cross-posted to:
- gamedev_news@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- gamedev_news@programming.dev
Bluesky Post (this was also posted on twitter)
I was hoping to find a statement from the aggressor, but it seems to be too early.
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I mean, it sounds like a lawsuit to me.
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A takedown request was issued on false grounds.
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This takedown was then actioned without any due process.
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The issue has caused tangible, and measurable, loss (calculable from prior sales records).
Honestly, there needs to be a fixed penalty fine for bad takedowns…
Takedown requests being spammed everywhere is sort of standard, what’s crazy is that their domain holder immediately honored the request, completely ignoring how massive itch io is with millions of users…
Honestly, there needs to be a fixed penalty fine for bad takedowns…
Absolutely not, fixed fines become expected costs, and immensely favor monied actors. Make it percentage based so it hurts equally, and rich people actually have to pay a measurable amount.
Fixed penalties just become the cost of doing business. Like actors, we need to start asking for percentage of gross.
Imo we need to start attaching criminal penalties to the people behind businesses that knowingly abuse their power and position like this. Corporate bullying isn’t a financial position, it’s a failing of ethics.
Yup. The first couple of times might have been a mistake subject to fine. The third time you’re facing criminal contempt of the rule of law.
Imagine if in America, corporations were subject to the three strike rule
Funko would drag a lawsuit out for years, but Itch might have the spite to push through it.
They’d probably settle. It’s not worth the cost to funko either
Fixed minimum penalty
I believe all of this is legal thanks to DMCA.
The DMCA doesn’t make false requests legal (I’m also not sure if this specific issue falls under the DMCA), but it does fail to define any meaningful penalty for making them.
Domain names arent copyrightable. This falls into trademark laws.
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Itch.io dev about this situation on Hacker News.
Leafo
I’m the one running itch.io, so here’s some more context for you:
From what 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 and phishing” going on, likely to cause escalation instead of doing the expected DMCA/cease-and-desist. Because of this, I honestly think they’re the malicious actor in all of this. Their website, if you care: https://www.brandshield.com/
About 5 or 6 days ago, received these reports on our host (Linode) and from our registrar (iwantmyname). I expressed my disappointment in my responses to both of them but told them had removed the page and disabled the account. Linode confirmed and closed the case. iwantmyname never responded. This evening, got a downtime alert, and while debugging, I noticed that the domain status had been set to “serverHold” on iwantmyname’s domain panel. We have no other abuse reports from iwantmyname other than this one. I’m assuming no one on their end “closed” the ticket, so it went into an automatic system to disable the domain after some number of days.
I’ve been trying to get in touch with them via their abuse and support emails, but no response likely due to the time of day, so decided to “escalate” the issue myself on social media.
(OCR)
What HN client is this?
Every single DMCA request should have to be filled out by hand and signed by the infringed party, not on their behalf by a third party, under penalty of perjury. This is absolute bullshit.
What the absolute fuck? itch.io is fucking massive, how did the registar just treat them like this? goddamn!
deleted by creator
I haven’t seen anything like that. What steam news specifically are you referring to?
They are probably referring to this: https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/millions-examples-extremist-and-antisemitic-content-found-steam-new and this: https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/steam-is-an-unsafe-place-for-teens-and-young-adults-us-senator-warns-gabe-newell-of-more-intense-scrutiny-from-the-government-if-valve-doesnt-take-action-against-extremist-content/
It’s it anti video games to point out something that is actually happening? Just because you love the company doesn’t mean that any bad news is an attack against the industry. Valve doesn’t want to moderate their forums, it was bound to happen.
I am a big GOG enjoyer myself, but when I need to use steam for anything, I have never encountered such content. Perhaps there is such content in private or otherwise not very visible spaces (such as user profiles), where they will not get reported, but that is true for any site with user content. I call BS on this being an issue.
Really? Because in my experience you have to wade through racist, homo- and transphobic, and misogynistic shit the second you foolishly open the discussions page on any game that features black or brown, LGBTQIA, and/or female characters.
As I said, I have never seen anything I would consider extremist myself. Though from your reply, I get the feeling the issue could be an unreasonably broad definition of extremist content on your side. That or I just happen to not visit games with such discussions.
Valve doesn’t want to moderate their forums
Devs and publishers are mods of their forums, if it’s too much for them they can add community mods or lock their forums (like some do).
And ultimately they’re still Valve’s responsibility. If you provide a platform, you’re responsible for what people do on it.
Actually this is the purpose of section 230, to remove the responsibility of the provider in terms of content. The steam discussion forums would be a form of social media and therefore steam as a whole under at least US law would not be responsible for the content that’s posted on it.
Please note that this doesn’t mean that they can’t moderate their forums, section 230 does allow the owner of the platform to dictate what they want on the forums as long as they’re acting in good faith.
In my opinion section 230 is healthy for an environment, because it’s primary purpose was to prevent an individual from being able to sue the company as a whole for Content that someone else posted, which in my opinion is fair. If someone produced libel against someone, that’s something they need to handle with the person who posted it. It doesn’t make logical sense for the person to go after the platform that held the content as they wern’t involved in that process.
If lawmakers would simply make the entity responsible for the operation of these AI powered tools be fully liable for every decision that it makes, right or wrong, this kind of nonsense would vanish overnight.
I hope the people running itch.io have great lawyers, because I would be trying to take Funko to court for punitive damages over something like this.
Also, while we’re at it, reform the DMCA to disallow automated copyright related takedown requests without some sort of human reviewing it at the other end. It’s been abused to hell and back by big business.
Not only is this absolutely inexcusable, also, Funko Pops are ugly and creepy-looking and I don’t understand why people spend so much money on them just because they look vaguely like the characters or people they’re supposed to represent.
God I hate our whole system.
Funko pops are for people that lack a personality and try to create one by buying dumb shit that sits on a shelf and depreciates in value. They’re just memecoin bros
Hey.
Just because I dont have a personality and try desperately to fit in doesnt mean I am as stupid as the cryptobro morons.
I’ve always hated funkopops, they’re ugly and the very epitome of the enshitification and commercialisation of geek culture. This does nothing to change my mind
My mom got me my first one in 2019 or 2020 because she thought it was cute (Guyfolye from Silicon Valley). A few months later she asked me if they were just Beanie Babies and I thought that was the end of it. Now every Christmas I get one even though she knows I don’t like them and we both snark on the super niche weird ones. She even got custom ones for me and my wife last year. It never ends, and I have 6 sets of beady little eyes staring at me when I’m watching TV in the basement.
I feel like you need to hear this: just because someone gifts you something doesn’t mean you need to keep it endlessly, or at all. Donate/giveaway/trash.
I know, I’ve been trying to work on it. Moving furniture and throwing away things is pretty hard for me.
Yes and they’re yet another collectible product that exploits the psychology of a subset of people who compulsively collect things. I put them in the same category as gambling and note that there’s a lot of crossover with these things (loot boxes and CCG booster packs being prime examples of a gambling and collectible combo).
Yeah, I hate those assholes too. I feel bad for anyone who falls for their business model.
Glances at my Tyranid collection
At least you can actually do something with those ‘Nids.
Back when I opened my comic and game shop (I no longer do comics, just games) I tried to get an account with Funko directly. They did not believe me that New Mexico is in the United States. The response was along the lines of, “if you feel that you are in the United States, we can pursue this further. But I suggest you opening an account with one of our Latin American distributors.”
This reminds of the story of some company not shipping to the Rhode Island because it’s an island not a state. Maybe someone here remembers more details
I could understand that if they were an overseas company, but they are from the US. That had to be one of the most incompetent customers service reps ever.
It is not uncommon, I was almost arrested when I moved to PA because I did not have a passport, or visa, or green card to go with my NM ID that clearly says USA on it for this very reason. Our license plates also say USA on them.
Maryland also refused me a license twice saying that I needed proof I am a citizen, despite having my NM birth certificate.
I also had two other distributors tell me they do not sell to Mexico.
The president elect also has made the mistake. He said we need a border wall between Mexico and Colorado.
I always knew Americans in general were bad with global geography… but to not even know their own states? That sounds insane.
Heck, in our Dutch schools, we actually learn all the states in the United States. I definitely know New Mexico is a state. Same as Alaska and Hawaii (but not Puerto Rico, which is a territory but not a state)
How am I better at this than actual Americans? That should not be a thing.
I never get tired of Europeans being surprised at the average intelligence here, thank you for making me giggle. The average American is about as smart as a stick, and as we both know, sticks aren’t good at geography
Less than as smart as*
