Indie video game market itch.io was apparently torpedoed over the weekend by collectible maker Funko.
According to an X post from the main itch.io account, the platform was removed by Funko (maker of the profoundly popular Funko Pop! figurines) and its AI-powered brand name security software application, Brand Shield.
[Brand Shield] developed some phony phishing report to our registrar, iwantmyname, who disregarded our action and simply handicapped the domain,” stated itch on social networks, however not before taking a minute to brand name the software application as “garbage.”
“Also, for openness, we did take the challenged page down as quickly as we got the notification since it's unworthy combating things like that. Regardless, our registrar's automatic system most likely kicked to disable the domain because nobody read our verification of elimination.”
Itch.io co-founder Leaf Corcoran used more context in a post on Hacker News and stated the phishing reported submitted by Funko and Brand Shield associated to a fan page for a computer game called Funko Fusion, which is based upon the Funko Pop! toy line.
“From what I can inform, some individual made a fan page for an existing Funko Pop computer game (Funko Fusion), with links to the main website and screenshots of the video game,” composed Corcoran.
“The BrandShield software application is most likely advised to eliminate all ‘unapproved' usage of their hallmark, so they sent out reports separately to our host and registrar declaring there was “scams and phishing” going on, most likely to trigger escalation rather of doing the anticipated DMCA/cease-and-desist Because of this, I truthfully believe they're the destructive star in all of this.”
Regardless of eliminating the fan page and disabling the associated account after being gotten in touch with by itch.io host Linode and registrar iwantmyname, Corcoran stated the latter never ever suggested the case had actually been closed. He then got a downtime alert.
“I saw that the domain status had actually been set to ‘serverHold' on iwantmyname's domain panel. We have no other abuse reports from iwantmyname besides this one. I'm presuming nobody on their end ‘closed' the ticket, so it entered into an automated system to disable the domain after some variety of days,” Cocoran included.
“I've been attempting to contact them through their abuse and assistance e-mails, however no reaction likely due to the time of day, so I chose to “intensify” the problem myself on social networks.”
Itch.io seems back online at the time of composing, although it did provide a workaround for those affected by the scenario. “If you understand how to fine-tune your hosts submit usage: 45.33.107.166,” the business included a follow-up post.
“If you do modify your hosts file, please keep in mind to eliminate all the lines after domain is brought back. We generally hold an IP for a while, it can alter if we upgrade our back-end facilities. If the downtime surpasses 8 hours then we'll likely focus on releasing a brand-new domain.
