Let's Talk About Gearbox

I mean Gearbox Software, the development company behind the Borderlands video games, which have been some of my favorites for their unhinged tomfoolery and general ridiculousness, but then also profoundly deep moments for stark contrast, of course. 

You may be familiar with my crochet Claptrap pattern. See it. It's extremely detailed. Not for the faint of heart. It is so much assembly. So many parts. Takes so long.

The pattern has been around for a while (since 2012, I think). I've made a lot of improvements over the years and recently added videos to help with the buckwild assembly. It was even featured on some official Borderlands social media back in the day. Back in the day when Gearbox was cool with fans making stuff.

What do you mean, Michelle? You might be wondering.

Well, well, well. I got a nice lil cease and desist notice from Gearbox the other day and the pattern was removed from Etsy. Shit happens. And they have the "legal" right to do this. It is, in fact, their IP and whatever. 

The amount of money I've made from selling the pattern for over a decade is a drop of water in the ocean of a million dollar company, so I think cease and desists from million dollar companies to individuals like myself is really fucking stupid, but it normally doesn't bother me. I normally give it a lol and add to the list of million dollar companies that I have butthurt with my fanworks. Again, getting a lil CnD normally doesn't bother me, but getting one from Gearbox does, obviously, or I wouldn't be bitching about it.

I've only ever actually made three of these. I do not make them custom because they take like 50 hours to make. It is not as if I am mass producing Claptrap plushies in a Chinese sweatshop for pennies on the dollar and marking them up for a 300% profit. I am in no way genuinely interfering with their own official merchandise. 

My problem is thus: this represents a change that I did not want to see in their mentality toward fans of their games. 

What's more...I looked into the report, which was filed by someone with the super made-up sounding title "Customer Protection Specialist." What customers are they protecting? I am a customer. I have been a loyal customer. I have purchased official Borderlands merch. I have essentially done free promotion for their games. But I daresay, they do not offer a crocheted Claptrap nor a crochet pattern for one, so I was filling a void and making a negligible profit compared to the profits they make. 

It has been proven time and time again that people who buy fanart and fan-made stuff STILL BUY OFFICIAL STUFF. I am not TAKING AWAY their money.

But I digress. The Customer Protection Specialist is actually from an AI company that Gearbox has outsourced to. I will not name the AI company nor link to it because I do not want to help their SEO in any way. The AI company's sole purpose is to find "infringement" so companies can "protect" their IP. I suspect it's some form of web-scraping and then a human looks at it to file the reports to put fear into the fan creators out there. 

Gross.

Just fucking gross. 

Another way AI is killing art.

And guess what, my wallet is now non-buynary. They've lost a customer they were trying to "protect." Borderlands 4 can fuck right off.