ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PC GAMES

News

Itch.io creator Corcoran accuses Web3 site of copying code

Itch.io creator Corcoran accuses Web3 site of copying code

The founder of indie games platform Itch.io, Leaf Corcoran, has accused a new site, W3itch.io, of stealing his website's code.

In a post on Twitter, Corcoran said that this new site – which is focused on Web3 DAO projects – had taken his site's design wholesale. W3itch.io responded, admitting that it did in fact use Itch.io's CSS files to create its site.

Since, Corcoran has posed to W3itch.io's Github page asking them to remove stolen intellectual property.

"You have stolen the UI of itch.io, blatantly ripping it off, in addition to using our name directly in your project," he wrote.

"As far as I'm concerned, this is scam to trick people by using @itchio's established brand on an unrelated project for your own profit.

"I request that you immediately remove any likeness, including our name, from your project."

Corcoran also accused W3itch.io of just stealing other people's games for it site.

"For the sake of respecting creators and their work, I request that you remove stolen content from your platform," he wrote.

At the time of writing, visiting W3itch.io returns a 404 page. It's unclear if the site has been taken down following Corcoran's request or whether the totally legit people who are running this side – and DEFINITELY know what they are doing – have done something to break it.


Tags:
PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.