HomeNews
Dread toy-peddler Funko Pop gets cool, handsome Itch.io taken offline via dodgy “AI-powered” brand protectionIt’s back online now
It’s back online now
Image credit:Funko / Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Funko / Rock Paper Shotgun
The situation has now beenresolved, thankfully, and you can access Itch.io as normal, but I will never pass up the opportunity to cast shade on Funko Pop, whoseNFT-garlanded bobbleheads I hate as I do veruccas and forest fires. So here’s a quick recap if you, too, missed the drama.
The trouble started on Sunday, when Itch.io mysteriously went offline. According to a post from Itch.io’s owner Leaf Corcoran onBluesky(Twitter’s relatively unspoilt cousin), the culprit was a phishing (i.e. internet scam) report automatically sent on Funko Pop’s behalf to Itch.io’s domain registrar, who proceeded to cork this wellspring of arty smallscale game development without due process.
“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 message reads. “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.
“About 5 or 6 days ago, I received these reports on our host (Linode) and from our registrar (iwantmyname),” the post continues. “I expressed my disappointment in my responses to both of them but told them I had removed the page and disabled the account. Linode confirmed and closed the case. iwantmyname never responded. This evening, I 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.”
Funko Pop leapt into action following these complaints. They’ve seemingly clarified the situation with iwantmyname, hence Itch.io’s return to the web. They also agree with Corcoran’s assignation of blame to BrandShield, though they’re more diplomatic about it.
The real shocker here, of course, is that Funko Pop has fans. Who are you people, and why do you covet shrunken petroleum-derivative incarnations of popular entertainment characters with eyes as blank and pitiless as the Mariana Trench?
More immediately and practically, we could ask why it’s so easy for some digital watchdog to auto-nuke a whole independent gaming community over a fan project, especially given that fan projects abound on Itch.io. Hopefully it’s a one-off. Imagine if Sega had similar protections in place for Sonic.
