@@EwanMarshall It must be faulty knowledges that being feed to train the AI tweet responses. To ban specific urls within a domain -- it was the task of the server hosting company, it is outside of what domain registrar could do.
Brandshield seem.. not that good. Did you notice during this video that their website offered "AL protection services" and their Twitter bio says they use a 'propeity' AI algorithm. If they're this big in the brand protection game sirely they have enough money to proofread their site in multiple languages ..
i'm foaming every time i notice a comment i wrote got hidden/shadowbanned because of some words or URLs. it can make it painful to have small discussions or help out others.
The AI bit is kind of a red herring, it's probably just marketing buzzwords. At my previous job we got dinged by a company like this all the time based on simple words in the web subdomain. An automated process was reporting our site every couple days, if I missed file counter claims on a single one our domain would have been taken down like itch. No AI needed.
It's possible they use AI, but that's not noteworthy. Any company with big enough data might employ even simple AI for data mining, and have done so for more than a decade. They really do only mention the term for marketing. Blaming the AI rather than taking responsibility is the real red herring.
A registrar from 2008 is not an old registrar. They're one of the "new crop" of registrars, that came to be after the alt-roots kerfuffle. I'm saying this as a new comer to the DNS scene - my first domain was registered in 1999.
The Brandshield statement is ridiculous and shows they don't know what they're talking about. What they're saying is comparable to saying "We just asked the power company to shut off the neighbor's TV, we never meant for the power to the rest of their house to be shut off as well...
IIRC, BrandShield is also behind a slew of takedowns against Minecraft videos here on TH-cam not too long ago. The more I see about them, the more I question how much of their actions are automated all the way through.
Are we just going to ignore the fact that BrandShield's website has a misspelling on it? "AL-Based" when they meant "AI-Based". Did some idiot in their web team mistake an I for a lowercase L?
@@forivall Well, considering they use the term AI everywhere else, I'm going with it being a typo, but a hilarious one for a supposedly reputable company to make.
@@maskharat that's not necessarily true, depending on where the various parties are located. For international business purposes, there's typically some kind of logic to determine under which jurisdiction the specific legal act is happening. Besides, something akin to unauthorized practice of law exists in a lot of places.
Whatever fault itch-io did is nulled as they went ahead and remedied it quickly upon getting it pointed out. Whatever Funko, Brand Shield, and iwantmyname did seems like deflecting blame or inaction.
You toob Dee ell's domain host got a half million dollar fine for hosting a website that was obviously not illegal but a judge got bee ribed to think otherwise. So every company is being extremely careful.
Just because Brandshield services many brands doesn't mean they aren't shit. You'd think after the Cloudstrike incident that people would have realized that size does not mean they are competent. Iwantmyname is definitely a shit company, but Funko ain't that great either. Their products are creepy as hell, and they are money grubbing leeches of the gaming industry.
Wtf, i thought you were joking (i looked up comments halfway the video). I'm now at the end of the video and wow... they called her/his mom?? This has to be a joke, this can't be real!
Even if they were honest Brandshield was still in the wrong, why do you skip reporting it to the owner first and directly go to the domain registrar? This issue never should have reached iwantmyname. However just taking down a full domein without any investigation or warning is big cullcrap. I hope Itch has a legal basis to sue for damages because of this negligence.
@@TheYdyp reporting to the owner is fcking difficult - there's no standard way to get contact details, and even if there was - there's no obligation to implement it. I needed to contract website owners on several occasions, and at best it's a manual process of slugging through several pages, often written in a language you don't know. At worst - there are no contact details. If you're sending multiple takedowns a day - it isn't worth the hassle. Registrars have a standardized complaint filling system and you know they have the contact details of site owners - because they bill them. Not filling with the registrar, as the first measure, especially if you offer cheap automated takedown process, will be insane.
@TheYdyp reporting to the owner is insanely difficult - there's no standard way to get contact details, and even if there was - there's no obligation to implement it. I needed to contract website owners on several occasions, and at best it's a manual process of slugging through several pages, often written in a language you don't know. At worst - there are no contact details. If you're sending multiple takedowns a day - it isn't worth the hassle. Registrars have a standardized complaint filling system and you know they have the contact details of site owners - because they bill them. Not filling with the registrar, as the first measure, especially if you offer cheap automated takedown process, will be insane.
@@TheYdyp Because they don't care. Their business model is taking down brands, they aren't getting paid to be reasonable and kind. They're an industry fixer not a legal mediator.
Could iwantmyname be sued for this? This seems like gross negligence, especially given the removal request for the page was already handled, and this could cause damages for every dev using the platform.... this could have cost people a lot of money.
@@thewhitefalcon8539 I don't see how, even from Itch's own framing of it a valid complaint was submitted that they acted on. The DNS seem to have dropped the ball by not checking for a response, but the complaint seem to be valid.
3:09 "We detect online threats. We take them down." That's weird because I just checked and the Brandshield website is still up... shouldn't this thing have taken itself down by now? It seems like a bigger threat than most other things on the internet right now.
We use Itch as a way to submit projects in game development classes at my college, and this fiasco happened just one day before our final submissions for the semester were due lmao
As an artist, I completely agree. Funko pops are a disgrace to art. I would rather see a panoply of stable-diffusion farted art than funko pop, because at least it doesn't assault my eyes with bad design, and when it's horrible it becomes eldritch instead.
Brandshield doesnt even know the proper channels and chain of command (or are negligent enough to not want to give a shit), literally choosing to not follow basic internet "rules" is insane for a company thats based on "internet rules" in the form of enforcing digital copyright and trademarks
Remember that these ais are deciding your health care, disability, ect. Laugh while it's a gaming website but soon your loved one might end up dead from fake ai results determining them to be a armed threat
Definitely iwantmyname is at fault here. They didn't respond, probably didn't close the ticket, had an automation system kick off without authorization, and shouldn't have been involved in this to begin with. The fact that it was a fraud complaint though makes me wonder if Funko was to blame for it..?
namecheap is actually not cheap, lol they give you FIRST year at good prices, almost all the domains renew at the same expensive price you'd pay right off the bat elsewhere namecheap is entirely built on people buying a cheap domain, and then rather pay the full price than let it expire, as opposed to seeing "too expensive" and not buying at all
So it's cheap for one year, then normal price after. That still means it's cheaper. They're one of the only registars not owned by GoDaddy, which is the main appeal to me and a lot of other people
Their pricing has been pretty inline with other major registrars I’ve seen that are still operational and have a decently sized infrastructure and support team, def not “cheap” but definitely not as expensive as this dumpster fire of a registrar.
for a period i worked abuse for web hosts and the policy when you get an abuse ticket was to just blow up the reported item and leave it for the customer to open a dispute if they care. there was no expectation to check anything at all, not even the validity of the claim. i wouldn't be surprised that's how this registrar operates as well.
the problem is not the IA but the USA law system . Company A can ask Company B to block Company C without a single judge order just because they think is a copyright violation ?
Sounds like a fraud case against Brandshield for the false category of the report and false statements to cover it up. Plus a civil lawsuit against Funko Pop and Brandshield for disruption of business, with damages for the lost sales during those hours. Add in the domain name provider to the lawsuit for the poor customer service. They will probably get out of it but including them could provide access to evidence on discovery that could be helpful for the action against the others.
Not really, having worked at the Abuse desk at an ISP neither Funko or Brandshield seems to have acted unreasonably here. Itch might well have preferred that they got contacted directly, but the standard way of dealing with these kind of things is to issue the complaint to the ISP or DNS and have them in turn forward the complaint to the customer. Sites rarely have a clear or standardized way of submitting these kinds of complaints and even for sites that do have a contact form usually don't promise any kind of remedy or handling time. The ISP or DNS however do have a way of contacting the site owner, since they are billing them, and it also gives some security in handling time, since if they don't respond then the ISP or DNS can resolve it instead. Itch may well feel that a DMCA complaint would have been sufficient, but it's not clear that a fishing complaint was unwarranted here. Itch's own framing of this makes it clear that there was a page on their site that impersonated one of funk's games, that is generally enough to qualify for a fishing complaint. The DNS however seem to have jumped the gun somewhat by not cheching for the response before taking action.
Maybe BrandShield is running Facebook's censorship bot. Yesterday I got an account restriction, supposedly for "sexual solicitation" due to posting a Google Drive link to some files I was sharing in a group chat! Nothing at all even remotely sexual about anything in the link or in my post. Fortunately after an appeal, they fixed it this morning, but I went a full day without being able to post in groups due to it.
@@thewhitefalcon8539 Lots of groups that I'm a member of, as well as keeping in touch with distant family and friends. Despite Facebook's issues, it's still more accessible for a lot of people than other social media platforms.
FB banned me for "promoting violence" when I mentioned how satisfying I found it when I stealth killed Placide in Cyberpunk 2077. 🙄 I guess the AI took "Stop Killing Games" a little too seriously after Facebook helped accelerate the Rohingya genocide?
Multiple companies worked together perfectly to take down itchio. Nobody is to blame, everyone is the victim. No one has the balls to stand for their mistake.
Imo iwantmyname is the "most guilty" party here, as it's mostly their fault, that it got this far, because they simply didn't do their job. Brandshield are scumbags for reporting a simple DMCA violation as fraud/phishing, but I guess that's expected when you're stupid enough to use AI for this. And Funko should just use a better service than Brandshield or at least instead of releasing bs PR statements, they should actively try to help resolve the issue faster. Itchio is the victim here, they obviously did all they should have done and yet they still got punished. So to sum it up - Iwantmyname should be charged and destroyed, Brandshield should be charged, Funko should stop existing as their "toys" are sh*t and Itchio deserves better.
Not if their overzealousness makes their clients the Internet's villain for a day or so. "Funko Pops needlessly harass indie game store" being in the public discourse is not good for Funko. This is also why public pressure for this incident should be on Funko and not BrandShield. If BrandShield takes the blame, they will have done their job of protecting Funko's brand and nobody will have an incentive to fix the problem.
@@PoldovicoExactly, brandshield isn’t trying to sell to the public, just to companies. To send a message to brandshield you have to go through their customers and demonstrate that their actions can hurt their customers brands, not just shield them.
@@Poldovico "This is also why public pressure for this incident should be on Funko and not BrandShield. If BrandShield takes the blame, they will have done their job of protecting Funko's brand and nobody will have an incentive to fix the problem." My knee-jerk reaction was to blame BS (Brand Shield, not... you know... though I guess it works both ways), but this is a very good point you're making. If the customers get pressured, they'd be forced to either switch to another brand-protection service provider, or at the very least yell at BS for their BS (heh) move.
@@Poldovico No, BrandShield's main responsibility is to verify requests. Otherwise bing employee would be able to say google has something bad, and google would be disabled. This would open a way for companies to get rid of competition through BrandShield. So BrandShield is the main culprit and should be sued and pay for all the damages. The second one is the registrar, since they should not blindly takedown stuff because some bogus company tells them to. They should at least contact the domain owner first and try to resolve the case with them.
This is like if a tipster reported a problem, the alleged offender ran away from the scene, someone else cleaned up the mess left behind to the approval of all parties, and _instead_ of the cop which arrives evaluating the problem, they cuff the dude that made things right, _then_ evaluated the problem, received testimony, and _hours later_ (potentially, affecting the life of the recently-incarcerated permanently) release them.
So uh, you think it's time for a decentralized DNS movement to start? Kinda wild the system wasn't implmented in a way to not be controlled by a handful of entities where stuff like this happens (or more concerningly where someone can get your personal info and stalk/harass you and those close to you... because you own a domain)
@@UODZU-P pray tell, what makes you think my comment is trying to offer a concrete solution instead of asking a question for open discussion? Pray tell, what size of stick must be up one's bum to be so uselessly hostile? A much more productive response would have been to politely inform of the challenges already known, potential solutions that already exist, etc. But nope, being rude to seem oh so knowledgeable is more important, right?
@@UODZU-Punironically blockchain technology. Though then that opens up the door to completely unmoderated abuse, I'm not sure which situation would be better at this point to be honest
I bought four FunkoPop Marvel figures as a BD present for my 11-year old grandson (they were on clearance at Target -- I'm cheap). He seemed very pleased. (I was unfamiliar with any of the super-people/creatures, but he seemed to know about them.) Was I right to do this? Re: the subject of this video - BrandShield has bigger issues involving political biases; don't go there.
As long as your grandson is happy, that's all that matters. Brodie is not targeting you or others that treat Funkos as just some toy you can buy at Target.
4:12 What's an "AL Based Solution"? I think Brandshield sucks for more than just bogus reports. It seems to me they are super sketchy and I would not trust them personally.
this gives similar vibes to the crowdstrike incident - you would think, you would assume these giant massive companies dealing with businesses who move like gazillions and billions of dollars WOULD have some guardrails in place, *some* checks and balances specifically to prevent some catastrophic bullshit from taking place. the layers of metaphorical swiss cheese have been sold off, outsourced and replaced with some incredibly crappy and shitty software
"Thank you for sharing in our passion for creativity" coming from a brand that churns out thousands of variations of the same bland-looking figurine is hilarious
i don't think anyone should feel bad laughing at tis, its hilarious. especially that bit near the end where they actually went and told his mom; i gotta know if this is real or not and if it is whether it was a random troll or one of the actual companies involved.
Did a court ordered them (IWMN) to take the website/domain down? Or did they violate their contractual obligation to provide DNS for the domain without any legal action?
I live under the crazy idea that when you buy something, you own it. And what you own can't be morally taken away from you except, in very specific circumstances, as evidence of a crime. By the police. IMHO this is not one of those circumstances.
I recall seeing a screenshot of a tweet of someone acting like there's no distinction between anime figures and Funko Pops, that got quote tweeted by someone saying that there is a difference -- that Funko Pops are more of a brand with a homogenized style, unlike anime which has at least some nuances to its style dependent on the creator, and that someone with a ton of anime figures just really likes anime, compared to someone with a ton of Funko Pops, who gets no bitches.
4:43 why on earth are we granting that? "because it's not worth fighting stuff like that" doesn't even *slightly* sound like there was a legitimate problem being reported.
All of them are guilty except for itch. Ion but I will say. I think that domain is a little more at fault. They should have been more attentive, and they should have realized it wasn't properly filed and sent a response stating this
the comic shop nearest to me closed. and so did the one farther from me. then one opened but it just had a few boxes of back issues and was full of funko pops. i asked them how they stay in business and they said funko pops sell really well. they closed in about a year or two.
1:47 A good wall section of Funko pops in "Jānis Roze" stores in Latvia already take up space in the limited size that they are given in the supermarkets. Worst offender being the one in "Domina". In "Jānis Roze" which are located in other supermarkets they didn't seem to be glaringly noticeable.
I've worked in the industry for some time, decades even. companies often ignore abuse report queues because it makes no money. it costs the company money to handle the abuse reports and disable offending accounts. why put any effort into that when it's not making any money for the company, only costing money and reducing income. it's very common.
Nothing gives me the itch more than seeing Pocket on Firefox and trash AI. Quite an "itch" you might say :D Love your videos. KEKW. EDIT: "trash" AI, did I really need to qualify? LUL
Companies, like domain name registrars, don't need to be active on social media. Twitter is not the platform to release "public statements". They don't need to release "public statements" at all. Have you checked, you know, their website, anyway?
If someone were to gift me a Funko Pop, I’d consider it an insult on par with a Victorian duel challenge, a metaphorical slap with a glove. you'd better have a flint lock ready to tomorrow's high noon.
I hope that BrandShield thing got sued for damages. Especially since from how you explained it this looked like a ddos attack on the registrar done by them.
Domain names are a centralized flawed system. Noone should be allowed to take domain names down, not copyright trolls, nor FBI. Censorship is ge,nocide.
Guilty partners:
- Iwantmyname for domain fuckery
- Brandshield for AI nonsense
- Funko for using Brandshield
Itchdotio owner for taking too long to respond to mom
Agreed, any one of those 3 could have prevented this situation from happening
Brandshield also for not understanding that all the registrar can possibly do is pass on a report to the domain owner or take down the entire domain.
Brandshield are evil zionists as well, so even more reason to Despise them.
@@EwanMarshall It must be faulty knowledges that being feed to train the AI tweet responses.
To ban specific urls within a domain -- it was the task of the server hosting company, it is outside of what domain registrar could do.
Brandshield seem.. not that good. Did you notice during this video that their website offered "AL protection services" and their Twitter bio says they use a 'propeity' AI algorithm. If they're this big in the brand protection game sirely they have enough money to proofread their site in multiple languages ..
Yeah, i noticed that too. However there is a slight bit of irony that you made a typo there...
Perhaps they had their AI proofread it. . . .
@@ERROR_-_404 sirely it was on perpose.
@@Samu2010lolcats if only. I fixed another and missed that one! 🤣
It's an isntreali company
this is youtube moderation applied to domain registrars >;P
i'm foaming every time i notice a comment i wrote got hidden/shadowbanned because of some words or URLs. it can make it painful to have small discussions or help out others.
Nope, YT moderation is much worse.
@@FunctionGermany I'd be surprised if youtube doesn't remove this reply of mine.
Linode being the only competent party in this whole debacle is a spectacle to behold
Linode is owned by Akamai since a couple of years now.
Linode and itch.
yeah, when a situation like this happened to me it _was_ linode in the wrong
Linode and porkbun have treated me well
The AI bit is kind of a red herring, it's probably just marketing buzzwords. At my previous job we got dinged by a company like this all the time based on simple words in the web subdomain. An automated process was reporting our site every couple days, if I missed file counter claims on a single one our domain would have been taken down like itch. No AI needed.
How's that kind of harassment even legal... Surely, you must be able to sue for that.
@@someguy9175 nope
It's possible they use AI, but that's not noteworthy. Any company with big enough data might employ even simple AI for data mining, and have done so for more than a decade. They really do only mention the term for marketing. Blaming the AI rather than taking responsibility is the real red herring.
@@someguy9175 if you can prove that its malices, and/r prove damages
A registrar from 2008 is not an old registrar. They're one of the "new crop" of registrars, that came to be after the alt-roots kerfuffle. I'm saying this as a new comer to the DNS scene - my first domain was registered in 1999.
The Brandshield statement is ridiculous and shows they don't know what they're talking about. What they're saying is comparable to saying "We just asked the power company to shut off the neighbor's TV, we never meant for the power to the rest of their house to be shut off as well...
IIRC, BrandShield is also behind a slew of takedowns against Minecraft videos here on TH-cam not too long ago. The more I see about them, the more I question how much of their actions are automated all the way through.
Are we just going to ignore the fact that BrandShield's website has a misspelling on it? "AL-Based" when they meant "AI-Based". Did some idiot in their web team mistake an I for a lowercase L?
Maybe they're arab?
Maybe it's supposed to mean "artificial learning"?
@@forivall Well, considering they use the term AI everywhere else, I'm going with it being a typo, but a hilarious one for a supposedly reputable company to make.
The webmaster was probably lazy and delegated the content generation to Artificial Incompetence.
Careful, you'll be accused of being hamas and antiemetic for pointing out typos.
Isn't takedown notices legal documents?
If yes and the AI serves them, thats unauthorized pracrice of law. And that's illegal.
The company is based in Israel. Your US laws really don't matter.
@@maskharat that's not necessarily true, depending on where the various parties are located.
For international business purposes, there's typically some kind of logic to determine under which jurisdiction the specific legal act is happening.
Besides, something akin to unauthorized practice of law exists in a lot of places.
yup
Whatever fault itch-io did is nulled as they went ahead and remedied it quickly upon getting it pointed out. Whatever Funko, Brand Shield, and iwantmyname did seems like deflecting blame or inaction.
You toob Dee ell's domain host got a half million dollar fine for hosting a website that was obviously not illegal but a judge got bee ribed to think otherwise. So every company is being extremely careful.
Just because Brandshield services many brands doesn't mean they aren't shit. You'd think after the Cloudstrike incident that people would have realized that size does not mean they are competent. Iwantmyname is definitely a shit company, but Funko ain't that great either. Their products are creepy as hell, and they are money grubbing leeches of the gaming industry.
3:57 Excuse me does that really say... AL-based? Who's Al and why does he have it out for people? 😂
Wait I didn't spot that lol
Funko's couldn't get worse, and they fucking did
They basically accidentally indirectly declared war on people with way too much free time.
imagine ur mom gettin a call from funko pop 😭
Wtf, i thought you were joking (i looked up comments halfway the video). I'm now at the end of the video and wow... they called her/his mom?? This has to be a joke, this can't be real!
@thingsiplay I can't believe it's not a joke either
@@anonded probably because it's a joke?
iwantmyname is def at fault here; assuming that Funko and Brandshield are being honest.
Even if they were honest Brandshield was still in the wrong, why do you skip reporting it to the owner first and directly go to the domain registrar? This issue never should have reached iwantmyname. However just taking down a full domein without any investigation or warning is big cullcrap. I hope Itch has a legal basis to sue for damages because of this negligence.
@@TheYdyp why wouldn't they?
@@TheYdyp reporting to the owner is fcking difficult - there's no standard way to get contact details, and even if there was - there's no obligation to implement it. I needed to contract website owners on several occasions, and at best it's a manual process of slugging through several pages, often written in a language you don't know. At worst - there are no contact details. If you're sending multiple takedowns a day - it isn't worth the hassle. Registrars have a standardized complaint filling system and you know they have the contact details of site owners - because they bill them. Not filling with the registrar, as the first measure, especially if you offer cheap automated takedown process, will be insane.
@TheYdyp reporting to the owner is insanely difficult - there's no standard way to get contact details, and even if there was - there's no obligation to implement it. I needed to contract website owners on several occasions, and at best it's a manual process of slugging through several pages, often written in a language you don't know. At worst - there are no contact details. If you're sending multiple takedowns a day - it isn't worth the hassle. Registrars have a standardized complaint filling system and you know they have the contact details of site owners - because they bill them. Not filling with the registrar, as the first measure, especially if you offer cheap automated takedown process, will be insane.
@@TheYdyp Because they don't care. Their business model is taking down brands, they aren't getting paid to be reasonable and kind. They're an industry fixer not a legal mediator.
Could iwantmyname be sued for this? This seems like gross negligence, especially given the removal request for the page was already handled, and this could cause damages for every dev using the platform.... this could have cost people a lot of money.
Not sure but Funko can definitely be made to pay the entirety of lost revenue while it was down
Terms and conditions almost certainly include the boilerplate, we don't need to provide a service if someone has accused you of anything at all ..
@@thewhitefalcon8539 I don't see how, even from Itch's own framing of it a valid complaint was submitted that they acted on.
The DNS seem to have dropped the ball by not checking for a response, but the complaint seem to be valid.
I was wondering the same thing, as this could be considered as damaging the income of all those indy devs not involved...
3:09 "We detect online threats. We take them down." That's weird because I just checked and the Brandshield website is still up... shouldn't this thing have taken itself down by now? It seems like a bigger threat than most other things on the internet right now.
We use Itch as a way to submit projects in game development classes at my college, and this fiasco happened just one day before our final submissions for the semester were due lmao
As an artist, I completely agree.
Funko pops are a disgrace to art.
I would rather see a panoply of stable-diffusion farted art than funko pop, because at least it doesn't assault my eyes with bad design, and when it's horrible it becomes eldritch instead.
Brandshield doesnt even know the proper channels and chain of command (or are negligent enough to not want to give a shit), literally choosing to not follow basic internet "rules" is insane for a company thats based on "internet rules" in the form of enforcing digital copyright and trademarks
My former lawyer's soul assures you that there is a suit for damage compensation coming very soon.
Remember that these ais are deciding your health care, disability, ect. Laugh while it's a gaming website but soon your loved one might end up dead from fake ai results determining them to be a armed threat
Lol police brutality but this time they’re robots
Healthcare CEO: "Write that down, write that down!"
Definitely iwantmyname is at fault here. They didn't respond, probably didn't close the ticket, had an automation system kick off without authorization, and shouldn't have been involved in this to begin with.
The fact that it was a fraud complaint though makes me wonder if Funko was to blame for it..?
namecheap is actually not cheap, lol
they give you FIRST year at good prices, almost all the domains renew at the same expensive price you'd pay right off the bat elsewhere
namecheap is entirely built on people buying a cheap domain, and then rather pay the full price than let it expire, as opposed to seeing "too expensive" and not buying at all
So it's cheap for one year, then normal price after. That still means it's cheaper.
They're one of the only registars not owned by GoDaddy, which is the main appeal to me and a lot of other people
Their pricing has been pretty inline with other major registrars I’ve seen that are still operational and have a decently sized infrastructure and support team, def not “cheap” but definitely not as expensive as this dumpster fire of a registrar.
for a period i worked abuse for web hosts and the policy when you get an abuse ticket was to just blow up the reported item and leave it for the customer to open a dispute if they care. there was no expectation to check anything at all, not even the validity of the claim. i wouldn't be surprised that's how this registrar operates as well.
Corporate America: It's Itchio's fault for existing & revealing our incompetence by existing
can't believe Funko could somehow get more cringe than making the worst figures
the problem is not the IA but the USA law system . Company A can ask Company B to block Company C without a single judge order just because they think is a copyright violation ?
Sounds like a fraud case against Brandshield for the false category of the report and false statements to cover it up. Plus a civil lawsuit against Funko Pop and Brandshield for disruption of business, with damages for the lost sales during those hours. Add in the domain name provider to the lawsuit for the poor customer service. They will probably get out of it but including them could provide access to evidence on discovery that could be helpful for the action against the others.
Not really, having worked at the Abuse desk at an ISP neither Funko or Brandshield seems to have acted unreasonably here.
Itch might well have preferred that they got contacted directly, but the standard way of dealing with these kind of things is to issue the complaint to the ISP or DNS and have them in turn forward the complaint to the customer.
Sites rarely have a clear or standardized way of submitting these kinds of complaints and even for sites that do have a contact form usually don't promise any kind of remedy or handling time.
The ISP or DNS however do have a way of contacting the site owner, since they are billing them, and it also gives some security in handling time, since if they don't respond then the ISP or DNS can resolve it instead.
Itch may well feel that a DMCA complaint would have been sufficient, but it's not clear that a fishing complaint was unwarranted here.
Itch's own framing of this makes it clear that there was a page on their site that impersonated one of funk's games, that is generally enough to qualify for a fishing complaint.
The DNS however seem to have jumped the gun somewhat by not cheching for the response before taking action.
Mindustry mentionned, let's goooo! 🎉🎉🎉
Maybe BrandShield is running Facebook's censorship bot. Yesterday I got an account restriction, supposedly for "sexual solicitation" due to posting a Google Drive link to some files I was sharing in a group chat! Nothing at all even remotely sexual about anything in the link or in my post. Fortunately after an appeal, they fixed it this morning, but I went a full day without being able to post in groups due to it.
Why do people still use Facebook?
@@thewhitefalcon8539 Lots of groups that I'm a member of, as well as keeping in touch with distant family and friends. Despite Facebook's issues, it's still more accessible for a lot of people than other social media platforms.
FB banned me for "promoting violence" when I mentioned how satisfying I found it when I stealth killed Placide in Cyberpunk 2077. 🙄
I guess the AI took "Stop Killing Games" a little too seriously after Facebook helped accelerate the Rohingya genocide?
Maybe the random letters used as identifier of the folder formed some word in a foreign language.
10:42 repeats twice
Confirmation we that we are in the Matrix.
It's been quite a while since the last repeated segment, i almost forgot about them
Nah, that's just deja Vu ;)
@@awdsqe123I have been in this place before
focus on the bell mr anderson
Multiple companies worked together perfectly to take down itchio. Nobody is to blame, everyone is the victim. No one has the balls to stand for their mistake.
Imo iwantmyname is the "most guilty" party here, as it's mostly their fault, that it got this far, because they simply didn't do their job. Brandshield are scumbags for reporting a simple DMCA violation as fraud/phishing, but I guess that's expected when you're stupid enough to use AI for this. And Funko should just use a better service than Brandshield or at least instead of releasing bs PR statements, they should actively try to help resolve the issue faster. Itchio is the victim here, they obviously did all they should have done and yet they still got punished.
So to sum it up - Iwantmyname should be charged and destroyed, Brandshield should be charged, Funko should stop existing as their "toys" are sh*t and Itchio deserves better.
Ironically, for their clients, being overzealous is good for business...
Not if their overzealousness makes their clients the Internet's villain for a day or so.
"Funko Pops needlessly harass indie game store" being in the public discourse is not good for Funko.
This is also why public pressure for this incident should be on Funko and not BrandShield. If BrandShield takes the blame, they will have done their job of protecting Funko's brand and nobody will have an incentive to fix the problem.
@@PoldovicoExactly, brandshield isn’t trying to sell to the public, just to companies. To send a message to brandshield you have to go through their customers and demonstrate that their actions can hurt their customers brands, not just shield them.
@@Poldovico "This is also why public pressure for this incident should be on Funko and not BrandShield. If BrandShield takes the blame, they will have done their job of protecting Funko's brand and nobody will have an incentive to fix the problem."
My knee-jerk reaction was to blame BS (Brand Shield, not... you know... though I guess it works both ways), but this is a very good point you're making. If the customers get pressured, they'd be forced to either switch to another brand-protection service provider, or at the very least yell at BS for their BS (heh) move.
@@Poldovico No, BrandShield's main responsibility is to verify requests.
Otherwise bing employee would be able to say google has something bad, and google would be disabled.
This would open a way for companies to get rid of competition through BrandShield.
So BrandShield is the main culprit and should be sued and pay for all the damages.
The second one is the registrar, since they should not blindly takedown stuff because some bogus company tells them to.
They should at least contact the domain owner first and try to resolve the case with them.
This is like if a tipster reported a problem, the alleged offender ran away from the scene, someone else cleaned up the mess left behind to the approval of all parties, and _instead_ of the cop which arrives evaluating the problem, they cuff the dude that made things right, _then_ evaluated the problem, received testimony, and _hours later_ (potentially, affecting the life of the recently-incarcerated permanently) release them.
So uh, you think it's time for a decentralized DNS movement to start? Kinda wild the system wasn't implmented in a way to not be controlled by a handful of entities where stuff like this happens (or more concerningly where someone can get your personal info and stalk/harass you and those close to you... because you own a domain)
It's very similar to why phone numbers are restricted to a few companies instead of modern messaging systems.
pray tell, how would a decentralized DNS work? I'll wait. (Mesh net already exists btw and has for literal decades)
@@UODZU-P pray tell, what makes you think my comment is trying to offer a concrete solution instead of asking a question for open discussion? Pray tell, what size of stick must be up one's bum to be so uselessly hostile? A much more productive response would have been to politely inform of the challenges already known, potential solutions that already exist, etc. But nope, being rude to seem oh so knowledgeable is more important, right?
it's how ICANN is funded
@@UODZU-Punironically blockchain technology. Though then that opens up the door to completely unmoderated abuse, I'm not sure which situation would be better at this point to be honest
Funko or Fukno am I right? Lol
Japan still has those game stores from the past
Ok angry man you have FBK on your desk and Frieren in the background - I believe you
Well, at least we know we can report Iwantmyname as a malicious domain.
They were negligent, but not malicious.
The BrandShield thing was malicious.
the scooby doo mousepad go crazy
Disregard Funko, appreciate Nendo
I bought four FunkoPop Marvel figures as a BD present for my 11-year old grandson (they were on clearance at Target -- I'm cheap). He seemed very pleased. (I was unfamiliar with any of the super-people/creatures, but he seemed to know about them.) Was I right to do this? Re: the subject of this video - BrandShield has bigger issues involving political biases; don't go there.
As long as your grandson is happy, that's all that matters. Brodie is not targeting you or others that treat Funkos as just some toy you can buy at Target.
Nice video Brodie (I stopped paying attention when I saw the Frieren plushies in the background)
4:12 What's an "AL Based Solution"? I think Brandshield sucks for more than just bogus reports. It seems to me they are super sketchy and I would not trust them personally.
this gives similar vibes to the crowdstrike incident - you would think, you would assume these giant massive companies dealing with businesses who move like gazillions and billions of dollars WOULD have some guardrails in place, *some* checks and balances specifically to prevent some catastrophic bullshit from taking place. the layers of metaphorical swiss cheese have been sold off, outsourced and replaced with some incredibly crappy and shitty software
Honestly they should ask for damages.
Glad I'm not the only one that thinks Funko's are hideous
genuine question, what's wrong with porkbun? was there some drama in the domain registrar world that I missed?
probably something to do with politics or moderation
"Thank you for sharing in our passion for creativity" coming from a brand that churns out thousands of variations of the same bland-looking figurine is hilarious
0:57 kon kon!
i don't think anyone should feel bad laughing at tis, its hilarious. especially that bit near the end where they actually went and told his mom; i gotta know if this is real or not and if it is whether it was a random troll or one of the actual companies involved.
when brodie robertson funko pops
Did a court ordered them (IWMN) to take the website/domain down?
Or did they violate their contractual obligation to provide DNS for the domain without any legal action?
I live under the crazy idea that when you buy something, you own it.
And what you own can't be morally taken away from you except, in very specific circumstances, as evidence of a crime. By the police. IMHO this is not one of those circumstances.
You are delusional. In reality, when you buy something, you don't own it.
8:31 surely itch can sue for damages?
I recall seeing a screenshot of a tweet of someone acting like there's no distinction between anime figures and Funko Pops, that got quote tweeted by someone saying that there is a difference -- that Funko Pops are more of a brand with a homogenized style, unlike anime which has at least some nuances to its style dependent on the creator, and that someone with a ton of anime figures just really likes anime, compared to someone with a ton of Funko Pops, who gets no bitches.
4:43 why on earth are we granting that? "because it's not worth fighting stuff like that" doesn't even *slightly* sound like there was a legitimate problem being reported.
The intro monologue was so fucking good. lol.
Actually, now that I think about it, an episode on domain name registrars could be interesting. . . .
All of them are guilty except for itch. Ion but I will say.
I think that domain is a little more at fault. They should have been more attentive, and they should have realized it wasn't properly filed and sent a response stating this
This just shows that if you want to take down a company, take down their registrar
The internet needs a way to work around broken DNS, which is vulnerable to lawfare.
4:44 omg, "UNPARALLELED AL-BASED SOLUTION" and it's still like that on their site right now, too. Why'd AL do that to Itch? :(
the comic shop nearest to me closed. and so did the one farther from me. then one opened but it just had a few boxes of back issues and was full of funko pops.
i asked them how they stay in business and they said funko pops sell really well.
they closed in about a year or two.
I love Porkbun: inexpensive, fast yet functional interface, and their support team seems to be great!
I'm curious as to what is wrong with PorkBun. I switched over to them and have been really happy. Is there anything I should be aware of?
tbh I find namecheap just overly expensive
the first year is cheap, after that they price gouge you.
I find porkbun always just has better prices.
Ignore that registrar as a plague. This shit cannot be trusted with your website.
1:47 A good wall section of Funko pops in "Jānis Roze" stores in Latvia already take up space in the limited size that they are given in the supermarkets. Worst offender being the one in "Domina". In "Jānis Roze" which are located in other supermarkets they didn't seem to be glaringly noticeable.
Latvian spotted 🔥🔥🔥🔥
That is quite an ironic tirade against funko pops when there are some on the shelf directly behind you...
I'm British and here CEX is very much like how you describe old game stores
Thank you, NoArrow, for having the thumbnail set to Brodie entering in a typo.
What's the typo?
@BrodieRobertson 5:26, when you missed an 'r' in your name. I'm not sure if NoArrow still uses that frame.
this only further proves: nendroids are superior to funkos.
WAIT HOW DID I MISS THAT LAST PART?!
Does itch io have a mascot? If yes, opportunity for a funko pop!
I've worked in the industry for some time, decades even. companies often ignore abuse report queues because it makes no money. it costs the company money to handle the abuse reports and disable offending accounts. why put any effort into that when it's not making any money for the company, only costing money and reducing income. it's very common.
Time for a class action lawsuit from all of us selling games on Itch.
4:43 Looks like there is a typo on that page: it is not an "AI" tool, but instead an "AL" tool.
Some guy named "Allen" makes all of the decisions.
Nothing gives me the itch more than seeing Pocket on Firefox and trash AI. Quite an "itch" you might say :D Love your videos. KEKW.
EDIT: "trash" AI, did I really need to qualify? LUL
Companies, like domain name registrars, don't need to be active on social media. Twitter is not the platform to release "public statements". They don't need to release "public statements" at all. Have you checked, you know, their website, anyway?
How much worse would it have to get for lawyers to get involved?
8:22 also a problem for tor, forged ssh hack attems from middle nodes
Any time a system is down. I am going to say that it has been Funko'd. We'll see If I can make this stick at work today.
this situation reminds me a lot about youtube lol
I still buy game CDs. We have Cex store in almost all major cities in the UK.
10:42 guys I think some of the companies involved might of released statements, firstly brandshield
guys I think some of the compan-
based fubuki enjoyer
If someone were to gift me a Funko Pop, I’d consider it an insult on par with a Victorian duel challenge, a metaphorical slap with a glove.
you'd better have a flint lock ready to tomorrow's high noon.
I was thinking “huh this is something Brodie will probably make a vid about” and here we are e
Brodie is such a troll. I love it. He wants to be taken down by funko. He wants all of Australia banned from Malibal. I love it. 😈
this entire saga sounds like it came from Dirty Work
I'm hearing lawsuits
I hope that BrandShield thing got sued for damages.
Especially since from how you explained it this looked like a ddos attack on the registrar done by them.
they just filed a takedown request, it's the registrar who took down entire website instead of a url
@@phoneywheeze Registrar is physically unable to takedown a single url.
Domain names are a centralized flawed system. Noone should be allowed to take domain names down, not copyright trolls, nor FBI. Censorship is ge,nocide.
There is a lawsuit in there somewhere...
calling his mom is next level
Funko for using Brandshield... And Brandshield for not rewiewing it before action being taken... And Iwmn for not rewiewing the case...