this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/technology
 

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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[–] FlyingSquid 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Makhno 21 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

It's beanie babies 2.0

[–] A_Random_Idiot 7 points 1 day ago

Hey.

Just because I dont have a personality and try desperately to fit in doesnt mean I am as stupid as the cryptobro morons.

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 1 day ago

That's basically what I was trying to say, but you put it better. Thank you.

[–] hark 134 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Fucko pop should be forced to pay damages. It's too easy for shitty companies to send out takedown notices and too difficult for those takedown notices to be contested by comparison.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 2 days ago

the "oh our automated system did it oopsies please forgive us" excuse doesn't make it any better either

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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 parry, under penalty of perjury. This is absolute bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

The DMCA still has a lot of problems. Like if someone uploads something behind a paywall, the victim has to pay before they can even send a valid notice.

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[–] [email protected] 130 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago

Did you send them a map?

[–] [email protected] 69 points 2 days ago (10 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] FinishingDutch 48 points 2 days ago (10 children)

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.

[–] derfunkatron 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Your English is also better than people in my family whose ancestors were 18th-century British colonists.

I once had a heated argument with a coworker about where the capital of the US is located. He was of the opinion that Washington state was the capital and Washington, DC was a US city located in Colombia (he also had difficulty understanding that Colombia and Columbia were spelled differently). He wasn’t trolling; when I finally got to a map (pre-smart phone days) and showed him where DC is located, he got really mad.

[–] FinishingDutch 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you, we take pride in our language education.

We learn English, French and German in school, which really helps when dealing with the rest of Europe. Whenever you meet someone from another European country, chances are you can find at least one language you both speak. Makes trade and travel a lot easier.

I do occasionally slip up when talking to Americans. We’re generally taught UK and US English here simultaneously. Which means I sometimes have the UK spelling in my head, which can differ slightly. For example, flavour vs flavor. Online, I usually try to keep it ‘US English’.

Yeah, I can absolutely see that ‘District of Columbia’ argument in my head :D You’d assume people at least know that one considering how much important stuff happens there. I’d understand if someone not from the US didn’t know. But Americans really should.

[–] derfunkatron 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’ve experienced the language skills of Nederlanders first hand! What I found to be most striking was hearing people having trilingual conversations especially in restaurants where the waitstaff were actively communicating individually with dozens of people in two to three languages.

I’ve tried to keep up with language skills but starting a language in high school or college just didn’t work for me. Especially since the application of those skills prioritizes written communication. I always end up with an understanding of pronunciation, some grammar, and a handful of vocabulary that I can’t actively use.

I don’t think any Americans are judging you too harshly for UK spellings. I think keeping track of all the slang and colloquialisms would be the greater challenge. I was taught “grey” and “colour” as a kid and the only problem I have is with spellcheck. 😂

[–] FinishingDutch 1 points 1 day ago

Ha, the slang and colloquialisms are actually the easy part, really!

We are subjected to an awful lot of US culture in general. We watch Hollywood movies and we get most US shows, which are shown with subtitles here. We also follow US news and events, we enjoy US music, we use a lot of the same services, etc. Basically, if I moved to the US, I’d fit right in.

We tend to enjoy US culture quite a bit. We might disagree on topics like politics, healthcare, gun issues or the metric system, but by and large we’re like… Canadians.

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[–] derfunkatron 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I had problems with TSA before because my real ID confused them and they didn’t believe it was a valid US ID. Granted, this was at a regional airport, but it’s literally the ID that complies with requirements set by Homeland Security for the specific purpose of use in airports by TSA.

Edit: and my ID isn’t even from New Mexico!

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[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please 46 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Yeah, New Mexico IDs and license plates both say “New Mexico, USA” for exactly this reason. So many people have almost been illegally arrested and turned over to ICE by incompetent cops during traffic stops. Cops will pull New Mexico plates over, see the New Mexico ID, and demand to see visa paperwork because they think the person is from Mexico.

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[–] repungnant_canary 39 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

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[–] HexesofVexes 521 points 2 days ago (15 children)

I mean, it sounds like a lawsuit to me.

  1. A takedown request was issued on false grounds.

  2. This takedown was then actioned without any due process.

  3. 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...

[–] [email protected] 272 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fixed penalties just become the cost of doing business. Like actors, we need to start asking for percentage of gross.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 121 points 2 days ago

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...

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[–] Furbag 144 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 days ago

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.

Itch.io shared on hackernews that they apparently sent a report for fraud and phishing, not copyright infringement. So sounds like funko was abusing the system even if automated copyright claims weren't a thing.

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[–] [email protected] 303 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

Itch.io dev about this situation on Hacker News.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 2 days ago

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)

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[–] [email protected] 152 points 2 days ago (10 children)

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

[–] chonglibloodsport 45 points 2 days ago (8 children)

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).

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 days ago

Huh, so I've always disliked funkopoops but just because I didn't like the mass production design and they were made in China with no evidence trying not to be made with slave labor.

Now I have a new reason

[–] [email protected] 234 points 2 days ago (77 children)

What the absolute fuck? itch.io is fucking massive, how did the registar just treat them like this? goddamn!

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Welcome to Web 3 I guess. Automated systems ignoring real actors

[–] johannesvanderwhales 31 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Web 3 was crypto scams, we're up to web 6 or 7 by now

[–] ultranaut 29 points 2 days ago

Web 3.0 was actually the Semantic Web originally, the cryptobros are bad at counting.

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[–] [email protected] 175 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Funko? That irrelevant, ugly, shitty, cheap, tacky, terrible brand from the 2010's that lacks any relevance in 2024?

Yeah, I know 'em.

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[–] maplebar 28 points 2 days ago (6 children)

That's fucking crazy. Anyone notice how AI has only made everything shittier?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

It's automating the enshittification. A large language model doesn't need to sleep and doesn't have a conscience.

AI as we know it now is, in a nut shell, the automation of "I was just following orders". Or a digital factory line of evil. Either way, this is about removing the human element from as many decisions as possible.

It would be tricky, unethical, and in some cases illegal to get people to do the sort of things the owner class and fascists want to do to society. But it's easy to let an AI program go nuts. The cruelty is the point in the case of the fascists. And in the case of the owner class it clears out anyone who couldn't afford a lawyer.

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I'd bet these fan projects lead to more sales of their garbage products, but these corporations don't see that because they want that licensing money now. Or they're just spiteful and vindictive like Nintendo.

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 2 days ago

It's back up now!

[–] [email protected] 129 points 2 days ago (3 children)

~~AI will take our jobs~~

AI will create more jobs because there will be dedicated staff who needs to handle the fallout when it does stupid shit

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Perhaps funko needs their claims adjusted.

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