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itch.io Community » itch.io » Questions & Support

funko blackout because of AI

A topic by Dark_Ansem created 63 days ago Views: 500 Replies: 12
Viewing posts 1 to 2
Dark_Ansem63 days ago(+1)

According to Itch.io's staff, Funko uses BrandShield, an AI brand protection software, which reported a potentially infringing page on the site to Itch.io's domain registrar, iwantmyname, who then took down the entire domain, without waiting for an appeal from the site owner. Itch.io claimed that the page in question was taken down the moment they got a takedown notice, but that iwantmyname ignored their confirmation that the content was already removed and disabled the site regardless.


This is very concerning because I have quite a few purchases on itch and I'm selling small things. What will  itch do to prevent similar situations and/or is any action going to be taken against Funko?


Are you also going to add a "download all" button to the app since I want to back up my entire archive and really would rather not do one by one?

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redonihunter63 days ago

I suggest you read up about how internet infrastructure works.

Even if Itch would lose their domain name completely from one day to the other, your things would not be gone. You would have just to wait the few days (or in this case hours) to reach Itch again.

Just like agaisnt ddos, as coincidentally also happened this week, you can't really protect against these type of srewups. Maybe the involved parties will update their tools and policies to avoid embarrassing scenarios like this in the future.

As for your archive, sadly, Itch is not a safe cloud space to store your purchases till you use them. There is always the possibility that the developer choses to remove the files. Look up what happened with Oxenfree this year. If you sell things here yourself, you know firsthand what is preventing you from removing files. (Nothing).

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Dark_Ansem63 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

what about oxenfree, the stuff is on steam?


More importantly this isn't a screw up by a ddos. This is laziness by funko. and I suggest you read about ownership.

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redonihunter63 days ago

Oxenfree was on Itch, too. It was removed a short while ago.

My point was, that Itch is still there, even if access to it is temporarily blocked. Either by dns shenanigans or by ddos or by any other infrastructural mishap. For a user there is no big difference - the site is not reachable.

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Dark_Ansem63 days ago

Was removed, or chose to leave?

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redonihunter62 days ago

Both. In a way. Just search it on the net. It was not removed by Itch, if that is what you meant. There is no guarantee that the developers will maintain an Itch presence. I have seen it happen several times for various reasons that content disappears. 

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Dark_Ansem62 days ago(+1)

The fact that content can simply disappear even for those who purchased it is unacceptable. A copy needs to stay, otherwise property rights are infringed. We are not renting our purchases.

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Magicsofa62 days ago(+1)

On the other hand you are not purchasing storage space either. I think as long as you were reasonably able to download the things you paid for, then Itch has fulfilled their end of the bargain.

Think of it this way, if you paid for something at a physical store and then forgot to bring it home, you should be able to go back and get it within a reasonable time frame. But if the store closes down 6 months from now and you still haven't retrieved your item, it's really your own fault and it is unlikely that you will get your item even with court involvement.

Similarly, you cannot expect Itch servers to exist forever. You should be downloading things as you purchase them and preserving them on your own hard drives which you can easily have multiples of for security. 

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Dark_Ansem62 days ago

Some items won't work with Itch downloader sadly, a regular "get everything" option would be very welcome. And I agree, it's not storage space, but I expect to be reasonably warned in case of shutdown

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redonihunter62 days ago

This is a case by case decision, but I believe if a developer sells anything and does not give an apropriate grace period to download it, Itch would see that as grounds for a refund request.

There is more of this in the tos. But basically, your rights as in licenses and such to use the software are unrevokable. But there is this kinda loophole, that neither Itch grants it's continued existence nor the developer is required to keep the files on Itch indefinetly. It has happened lots of times with all those cloud services where you could buy digital files - and not even download them. It is quite an outrage and #1 argument against drm. Coincidentally, drm is frowned upon on Itch and I have seen such very, very rarely.

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Dark_Ansem62 days ago

well ok I think we can all agree that Denuvo is the worst drm and in general they are predatory

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CraftingLogio61 days ago

...that's not how digital goods work Einstein!!

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Dark_Ansem61 days ago

Go away.

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