From what I 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, I 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 I had removed the page and disabled the account. Linode confirmed and closed the case. iwantmyname never responded. This evening, I 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 I decided to "escalate" the issue myself on social media.
This one uses the "DID", not the handle, and will not 404: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:oy37ivqnriw6nx3lrbcht2u3/po... (cc dang)
Open issue regarding making bsky URLs less fragile while also not looking ugly: https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/1221
E: https://registry.terraform.io/providers/cullenmcdermott/pork...
Not sure if it works though
Might be useful to send letters to Disney's and Mattel's legal departments. Mattel paid a lot of money for that Disney license. Disney is very protective of those licenses. Mattel lost the Disney license to Hasbro for a few years due to overproduction of low quality dolls. I'm surprised to see Funko selling low-quality Disney dolls. They degrade a Disney brand.
[1] https://funko.com/pop-tyrannosaurus-rex-fossil/80225.html
[2] https://licensinginternational.org/news/mattel-and-universal...
[3] https://funko.com/fandoms/animation-cartoons/disney-princess...
[4] https://corporate.mattel.com/news/mattel-and-disney-announce...
Prices went up, service went down. I’d recommend moving your domains when you can (Porkbun have been good, though I haven’t had any incidents like this).
Best of luck!
The full thread is worth reading for more feedback on a range of registrars, particularly Namecheap: >>18086522
I strongly encourage people to only recommend domain registrars if they have verified that customer support won’t completely fuck you over when something goes wrong. Recommending registrars when you’ve only experienced the happy path is doing a disservice to the people you are trying to help out.
If you take a look at:
https://www.domaindiscount24.com/en/about-us
You will see that Team Internet owns them as well. So I would personally bve on the fence if I would consider them good or not.
seems like gandi didn't just multiply the prices but raised them exponentially.
beware of namecheap though. see >>42364240
I appreciated the indie feel as well, but I can't blame someone for selling out to the tune of 7 figures when the opportunity arises.
https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/51541/has-anyone-bee...
They do mention a case where the defendant acted in bad faith and was found liable for damages though.
Others might be good, but no idea who exactly, many small unknown companies in the list that could be either great or shitty.
Read the Wikipedia article and you’ll probably feel outraged.
Don’t look to large, well-known registrars. I would suggest that you look for local registrars in your area. The TLD registry for your country/area usually has a list of the authorized registrars, so you can simply search that for entities with a local address.
Disclaimer: I work at such a small registrar, but you are not in our target market.
1. <>>32095499 >
2. <>>32507784 >
Also, here is a blog post[2] warning about the improper use of algorithmic enforcement tools like the one that was used in this scandal.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_childcare_benefits_scand...
1. Section 6.1 of https://www.cloudflare.com/domain-registration-agreement/
So, in case anyone is interested, their registrar is MarkMonitor Inc., with a pricing of "contact us". The only pricing info I could find [0] said that it's 20$/yr for a .com, but with a minimum spend of 10k$ (probably reached by using their other services, such as the stated purpose of monitoring of trademarks).
[0] >>18063232
Richer Sounds boss in £3.5m staff giveaway https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48269171
To replace Gandi email (that Gandi went from free to ramping up the pricing for when they were taken over), Cloudflare offer email forwarding so you can receive incoming mail from a custom domain to e.g. a gmail account, and for sending mail you can pair this with a custom SMTP service like https://www.smtp2go.com (1000 emails/month on the free tier).
Apart from that, DNS is something I barely touch for years sometimes so I don't find much difference between registrars beside their pricing and how much you can trust them.
Being able to point your Cloudflare nameserver records would be nice though, so worst case you'd need to move everything if another registrar had some services you were interested in? Would be curious to know more about how common this scenario comes up and why.
The legal system already acts that way when the issue is in its own wheelhouse: https://www.reuters.com/legal/new-york-lawyers-sanctioned-us... The lawyers did not escape by just chuckling in amusement, throwing up their hands, and saying "AIs! Amimrite?"
The system is slow and the legal tests haven't happened yet but personally I see no reason to believe that the legal system isn't going to decide that "the AI" never does anything and that "the AI did it!" will provide absolutely zero cover for any action or liability. If anything it'll be negative as hooking an AI directly up to some action and then providing no human oversight will come to be ipso facto negligence.
I actually consider this one of the more subtle reasons this AI bubble is substantially overblown. The idea of this bubble is that AI will just replace humans wholesale, huzzah, cost savings galore! But if companies program things like, say, customer support with AIs, and can then just deploy their wildest fantasies straight into AIs with no concern about humans being in the loop and turning whistleblower or anything, like, making it literally impossible to contact humans, making it literally impossible to get solutions, and so forth, and if customers push these AIs to give false or dangerous solutions, or agree to certain bargains or whathaveyou, and the end result is you trade lots of expensive support calls for a company-ending class-action lawsuit, the utility of buying the AI services to replace your support staff sharply goes down. Not necessarily to zero. Doesn't have to go to zero. It just makes the idea that you're going to replace your support staff with a couple dozen graphics cards a much more incremental advantage rather than a multiplicative advantage, but the bubble is priced like it's hugely multiplicative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spite_house
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Curb_Your_Enthusiasm_e...
[0] >>42365837
Disney chases down little daycare centers: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/daycare-center-murals/
They would not miss Funko.
However, nothing compares to the George Lucas saga down in Marin County. Was worth it just for the read about Lucas' fight with the county. Nigh incomprehensible.
[1] Forbes Summary, 2012: https://www.forbes.com/global/2012/0507/companies-people-geo...
[2] NYTimes Summary, 2012: https://archive.is/7iSSE
[3] CNET Summary, 2015: https://www.cnet.com/culture/george-lucas-to-build-affordabl...
[4] Pacific Research Institute Summary, 2021: https://www.pacificresearch.org/george-lucas-reluctant-yimby...
> submitted a so-called precise development plan in 2009 [for a] 269,701-square-foot digital studio [2]
> Lucas’ company says it spent “tens of millions” on engineering and environmental reviews and fees since its master plan was approved in 1996. [1]
> The association and others sent a letter to Mr. Lucas requesting that he find a “far more appropriate location for the development.” The project, the letter said, would “pose a serious and alarming threat to the nature of our valley and our community,” “dwarf the average Costco warehouse” and generate light pollution so that “our dark starry skies would be destroyed.” [2] In 2012, Lucasfilm announced that it had scrapped the 263,701-square-foot project. [3]
> "The level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners in Lucas Valley has convinced us that, even if we were to spend more time and acquire the necessary approvals, we would not be able to maintain a constructive relationship with our neighbours" [3] “We were offering to shut down at 11 p.m. and spend $70 million to restore creeks ravaged by erosion and farm debris. Nothing we offered to these people was ever going to be enough. And so we were facing death by delay.” [1]
> In 2012 Mr. Lucas said he would sell the land to a developer to bring “low income housing” here. [2] there was a predictable backlash from residents, who believed that affordable housing would bring crime into the area and lower property values [3] “It’s inciting class warfare,” said Carolyn Lenert, head of the North San Rafael Coalition of Residents. [2]
> That has created an atmosphere that one opponent, who asked not to be identified, saying she feared for her safety, described as “sheer terror” and likened to “Syria.” [2]
> Carl Fricke [...] said: “We got letters saying, ‘You guys are going to get what you deserve. You’re going to bring drug dealers, all this crime and lowlife in here.’ ” [2]
> After three years in stasis, working with the regulations that govern affordable housing grants, George Lucas now plan[ed] to foot the bill himself, to the tune of upward of $150 million (circa 2015). This not only allows the project to proceed without jumping through those hoops, it also means that the housing can be allocated to specific groups, such as seniors, nurses and teachers. [3]
> The plan called for 224 apartments, along with generous residential amenities and a new bus stop [4], situated over 52 acres just north of San Rafael. This consists of 120 two- and three-bedroom workforce residences, and 104 one- and two-bedroom residences for seniors. [3]
> neighboring property owners quickly threatened Lucas with a $70 million environmental lawsuit if the filmmaker didn’t pull back his housing plans. True to California planning tradition, the project remain[ed] in limbo five years later. [4]
[5] https://www.thethings.com/george-lucas-billion-net-worth-spe...
> Lucas and the residents continued to battle over the property for several years until Disney eventually bought the property as part of purchasing LucasFilm. [5]
And the final piece of the story, perhaps the worst:
[6] Daily Mail Summary, 2023: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12063777/These-form...
[7] Google Maps View, Binford Rd, 2023: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.1221805,-122.5651918,3a,75y,...
> A line of RVs, trucks, and trailers stretches for nearly 2 miles along Highway 101 in north Marin County
> More than half had lived in Marin County for over a decade, and a further 13% for at least five years.
> 'I've been here four and a half years. I was one of the first here. When I came in mid 2018 there were three motor homes. Now there's over 80.' Sherry and Lyness said they can't afford a normal home any longer, and low-income housing is in short supply.
It's not that you are not giving me source because your time is valuable and I'm dumb. It's because there is no source and these concepts don't have any standard rigorous definition.
https://www.google.com/search?q=decentralized+vs+federated
Google gives me trash. These are trash concepts, nothing written by academics or professionals or standard textbooks, or proceedings of magazines or publications.
Just blogs and cryptonerds (with different definitions).
Maybe your domains are affected buy a new or old policy?
Itch.io: "This is not a joke, Funko just called my mom"
