Games

DMCA used to be used very very rarely because it carries(carried?) significant penalties for using it like a club. Now it's just being used like a club and it's quite obvious there's no penalty.

I'd do a new registrar either way.

I've worked at hosting companies in the past. I don't know the timeline, but I've never encountered a situation where one folded this fast and just take down a client's site over a copyright claim.

And our clients, because of the nature of the internet being the internet, a small percentage were real scumbag folks, who while the content was objectionable and disgusting, it wasn't illegal. Which means it stayed up.

• If there was something highly illegal like csam or dark web stuff and it came from a federal agency, we'd take down the site immediately.

• If it was a strong letter from a legal entity that we trusted, we would pass that to the client and recommend remediation. No takedown unless there was a court order.

• If it was a weak letter from a random legal entity, we lol'ed and wait for the threat of a lawsuit/court order. This was surprisingly extremely common.

So wtf is this registrar doing to shit on their clients so fast without a court order?

They committed fraud with a false take down and are hoping they don't get the shit sewed out out them by pointing the finger.

Well it's obvious that the registrar is to blame. Anyone can send emails requesting the takedown. The registrar shouldn't do it. Are Funko and Brandshield scummy? Yes, but they are not who took down itch, it was the registrar. Also Funko calling anyone's mother is fucked up.

Also: brand shield says they only wanted the url gone but you don't get that when talking to the registrar. Registrar are all or nothing, so clearly they knew they were doing this

I think Iwantmyname may be the worst player in this story.

Everyone else kind of did what they were expected to do:

1. Itch provides a platform for user generated content and took down some questionable content when asked.
2. Funko is an IP based toy company and asked a tech company to protect their IP online
3. BrandShield is a fucking cancer of a service that acted aggressively to protect its client's interests

But:

4. Iwantmyname is meant to provide a domain name registration service,, it's a cutthroat industry where often times customer service is viewed as an unnecessary cost, but itch was their client and they should have been helping itch respond to the notice in a manner that allowed it to continue to exist. Instead they were willing to shut it down without any real dialog.

The rest might be decent business partners if you are looking for their kind of service but Iwantmyname isn't to be trusted.

It's really just "this thing happened" and nothing else, as if they're reporting on events where they're just innocent bystanders. Instead of saying what they did, it's "hey, we didn't do [detail]".

Lawsuit liability.

Why do a decent thing when you have money on your side

Personally I want to see the criminal shield removed for corporations. All C-Level executives become personally liable for any illegal actions, malfeasance, slander/liable, or injurious action perpetrated or instigated by the company with the ONLY defense being proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt (not just reasonable doubt) that an actor within or without the company caused the action with the express intent of harming the C-Level executives, either specific or generally.

Fuck corporate personhood. Fuck people making a LLC and doing whatever the fuck they want under the guise of the company then the company declares bankruptcy while they run off like a cartoon character with bags of money. Leadership liability and culpability should be the norm, not the exception.

Corpo-speak in general is absolutely frustrating to read.

It looks like this is the one:

https://funkofusion.itch.io/funko-fusion

1. It closely copies the branding of Funko Fusion by 10:10 Games.
2. The title and account have been pulled.

Both match leafo's description:

[...] 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.
[...] I had removed the page and disabled the account.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42364033

Why ask the registrar to take down a subdomain of a website?

Those subdomains are not managed or controlled by the registrar, so all the registrar can do is either take down the entire domain or ask their client to take down the subdomain. In this case they asked their client, who took down the subdomain, after which the registrar took down the domain anyhow :D

For a single isolated offence, Brandshield's first action should have been to report the copyright infringement to itch.io and ask for a takedown of that content, instead they went directly to the registrar and falsely claimed that itch.io was a fraud & phishing site. I suspect that they falsely claim that it's about phishing and fraud, because otherwise registrars will not take down the site unless there is systematic copyright infringement (like a torrent site). And I suspect that brandshield goes directly to the registrar with their complaint, since that is easier to automate than finding the right contact info on a website.

So my take is that: The registrar was in the wrong for taking down the domain after itch.io removed the problematic subdomain. Brandshield is scum. And Funko is in the wrong for using brandshield.

No real need for further answers from itch.io, nothing new has come to light.

Edit: while under the shower I realized that Brandshield's posts do contain some kind of news: Brandshield does not deny having used fraud & phishing as reason for the takedown request, thereby confirming that they did. Before we just had itch.io's retelling of the events, which might have been a misrepresentation by itch.io or due to a cock-up by the registrar, but because of the lack of denial by brandshield, we now have confirmation that it did happen like itch.io said.