this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024

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Funko Pop abuses domain name reporting system, takes down itch.io (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://x.com/itchio/status/1866017758040993829

all 26 comments

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 1 month ago

I hope they will switch their registrar. That's just unprofessional.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 month ago

I used to not like Funko Pop, but that changes today. I now loathe them.

[–] jordanlund 51 points 1 month ago (3 children)

At first I was like "WTF does an indie games site have to do with Funko?" then I Googled it...

Looks like they hosted a BUNCH of infringing games, so Funko, instead of doing the righteous thing and sending them a takedown request, just nuked the whole domain...

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And this nuke should cost them dearly, as there are so many Devs and Artists affected by it.

[+] jordanlund -32 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I mean, I don't blame them for protecting their IP, they just picked a super shitty way to do it.

I don't even think they would have needed an official cease and desist... just a friendly note of "Hey, none of this Funko material is licensed, please remove it."

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I blame them. Fair use is a thing and even beside fair use fuck em. copyright are getting more and more stupid by the day.

[+] jordanlund -30 points 1 month ago (4 children)

It's not fair use to use images and names you have not licensed.

See this asshat:

https://youtu.be/Nv8llGq9fkY

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/s/TCK6HUAFm7

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Fair use is country dependent. But here is the US definition:

https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/index.html

And from switzerland:

https://theswissquality.ch/understanding-the-legal-doctrine-of-fair-use/

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

buddy as if anyone on here would care about copyright infringement. i guarantee you 90% of users on here pirate all their stuff

[–] jordanlund -4 points 1 month ago

Well, if you care about an indie gaming site being shut down for copyright violations, yeah, you might want to actually care about copyright infringement.

What they were doing here though was supporting developers profiting off someone elses IP. It would be like, I dunno, I started an independent Superman movie and was fundraising off that. It's a little different from piracy.

In the case of the Five Nights at Freddies game, the developer is infringing on not one but TWO properties.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

yes it is.

[–] jordanlund 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, it isn't.

https://copyright.psu.edu/copyright-basics/fair-use/

"In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

the nature of the copyrighted work;

the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

So, me, making a fan page for FunkoPop versions of the Five Nights at Freddies characters and using their images? THAT'S fair use.

Me charging money for a fan game based on the same Funko versions of those characters is NOT fair use.

"Section 107 of the Copyright Act gives examples of purposes that are favored by fair use: “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, [and] research.”"

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

legal != moral

also it was done by their users, not them.

[–] jordanlund -2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fortunately our laws aren't about what's moral or not. You need religious police for that.

The correct process would have been to issue a takedown request, then go after the domain if nothing was done, they just jumped the gun.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

what i mean by moral, is about things being fair or not, and this is clearly not.

see, the fact that they can jump the gun, but the end users cant is the problem here. even the correct process is very biased towards big companies because they can afford a lawyer army to harass people with weaponized bureaucracy.

who cares besides them anyway? they cant sue everyone.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

I blame them for protecting their IP like a old white person protects their property value by shooting at any black person that moves into the neighborhood.

[–] cryptiod137 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But they didn't send a C&D, they sent an AI automated phishing report about a fan page for an actual licensed Funko game.

They weren't address copyright anything, even if it was there.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago

[–] Lauchs 3 points 1 month ago

Thanks, I was super confused for a bit!

[–] LANIK2000 1 points 1 month ago

An all out attack on thousands of people's lively hoods without warning, how will they ever get out of thi...oh wait, it's America, right, they'll not only not face punishment, they might even get a pat on the back.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

@[email protected] Is this "abuse", deliberate action instead of an AI-generated mistake?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The choice to use "AI" was deliberate. That's malicious enough.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

now now, it's not necessarily malicious, it can just be extreme incompetence.