Four years ago I created the brand Funkyou. The idea came from my desire to turn the commonly used negative expression “fuck you” into a positive brand. That’s what the Funkyou brand wanted to stand for, along with some other commonly used expressions that I’ve redefined in the spirit of the new brand. “Funk you too”, “Who the funk” and “What the funk” are just three of these expressions that I thought could support the brand along the community.
Among the elements which combined started the Funkyou brand, was the Funkyou.ro website.
At the end of December 2006, my team at OkapiStudio and I started working seriously on our new launched company. Most of the time we were pretty busy, so, we decided to put Funkyou.ro on hold for awhile. The domain expired after 2 months, at the beginning of March 2007, as it was registered on MyX – a monthly fee service providing domain registration, the only one in Romania who accepted card payment at that time.
Meanwhile our MyX registration was expiring, the companies that register .ro domains started accepting credit card payments (not just bank account transfer), so, buying a .ro domain for an year or a lifetime became an accessible option that lead to our decision to let our MyX registration expire, with the soul purpose to aquire it again from one of the new domain register companies mentioned. Although it was not a smart move from our side to let the domain expire, the community was running in a close creative circle of friends and a few thousand outside readers. Even though at the time, it was taken in consideration on Cpluv, Sursftation and other know portals, in our mind it was still a small playground where we can have fun along with other people like us.
Few months after a lot of work on our side, OkapiStudio became a stable company, so we decided to concentrate on our “on hold” projects, and think about the new website we should design for our Funkyou.ro community.
As we turned our attention to the project we found that our domain was bought on 30 March 2007 by Citrus Design, a design company located in Timisoara, Romania.
As the site was still blank, we never thought too much of it and we just considered we lost a domain name to a shady company. Name hunting companies are all over the world, and the future of the domain was not certain for us since there was not too much information at the time on the Citrus website (you can check Archive.org).
Earlier this year though, our friends started to ping us and ask about Funkyou.ro, main reason being that Citrus was announcing on the homepage of Funkyou.ro plans to launch a creative portal and a magazine with the FunkYou name. Of course, we decided to call Citrus and ask for an explanation. I guess they were not expecting the call that soon since the person that responded the call said he knew about us, that things are complicated, and that they will call us right back in 15 minutes. Probably just needing some time to get their story straight.
Yet on the callback, the story took a different turn as we took notice of the fact that these people where aware of the Funkyou.ro community, as they were active members on our old website.
Out of nowhere, as we were talking, they stated clearly that their intention is to continue what we started, without feeling the need to ask for our permission or at least try to find out if Funkyou.ro was just a website that they considered dead and abandoned or it’s part of a bigger project (they knew for a long time about OkapiStudio, they knew me, so, they were definetly aware of who or where they have to ask in order to get information about this).
I honestly don’t understand how people I know, people that have the expectation and deserve to be respected in this industry, can turn to such lame techniques to get famous.
The fact that they haven’t came up with a brand new concept, that they use the same name, with the same content and meaning, that they have the same type of activity, the same target, the same message, the same….everything and the fact that Citrus Design registered the Funkyou.ro domain after less than a month from the time it had expired, all these things make me believe that they weren’t capable of making their own concept so they had to steal one.
The web.archive.org tells us clearly that, on December 10, 2006, Funkyou.ro as a creative portal was still an OkapiStudio property
http://web.archive.org/web/*/funkyou.ro
Soon after this date we stopped the website and on March 10, 2007 the domain expired, exactly 20 days before the new owners bought it. In their “Statement” section, the authors of the new site claim that on March 30, 2007, the domain was free for over an year and this is why they thought we abandoned the project.
The products from “Featured Product” section, Sunnyday Shop from “Partner Shop” are OkapiStudio property and the new “owners” of the domain do not have the permission to use it.
Despite all that, Stefan Lucut and Eduard Muresan state that what they are doing is normal, ethical and moral.
Funkyou is a brand of OkapiStudio. Citrus Design, Eduard Muresan and Stefan Lucut don’t have the right or the permission to use it.
Here is how it was and probably will never be again:
18 Responses to “The truth behind Funkyou.ro”
By Eduard Muresan on Aug 13, 2008
Here are some notes on this post:
- Gabi Lungu or Okapi Studio did not invent the concept of an online community and everyone has the right to do one if they feel up to it.
- The old FunkYou site was nothing more than chat space. At no point in time were there any indication from Okapi or Gabi Lungu that the site is going to be more than that.
In contrast to that, we’ve developed a much larger project that involves publishing a book and doing workshops - but of course they can always say that we’ve stolen that idea from them as well (so, people, refrain from publishing books or you’ll have problems with Okapi)
- To say that something like “FunkYou” is their creation is just childish… Check with any registar how many other domains named funkyou.?? exist in the world. Would Okapi go after them as well???
- The design is authentic, not copied in any way. The domain was bought legally, and if I remember correctly you can still buy a domain if it’s available and the previous owner could not find the time, interest or resources to pay a mere 30 euro to secure it for life (.ro domains are not payed yearly but with a one time fee)
- In the end, I believe that if we would announce that we plan to build space ships to take designers to paint the moon, we would still be labeled by Okapi as thieves because “probably” they also thought about this, so I believe this conversation in pointless.
- FunkYou is run by a NGO (official process for the registration of this NGO is still in progress and this is why Citrus did register the domain). The founders of the NGO are myself, Stefan Lucut and Emeric Pongor. So, if Okapi has a problem, they should direct it to us, not to Citrus. From this point of view, Citrus is entitled to claim damages to their image in case this conflict continues.
- We’ve worked on this project for 5 months so far and we’re still working on developments… All Gabi Lungu and Okapi did was to sit back and complain. I haven’t seen anything from them so far… Just that they are thinking of stuff and we are stealing their ideas (like mind readers)
So that is it as far as we are concerned. This place is supposed to be an inspiration point and not some stupid quarrel.
By Glu on Aug 13, 2008
what about the subject? thief!
By Eduard Muresan on Aug 13, 2008
I almost forgot to mention:
- About the featured products, the owner of Sunnyday (Dana Nicolescu) contacted us for a partnership because she felt that we were doing something with this project. As far as I know, she has the right to sell the products in her shop and we also have the right to promote anyone we like.
- To say that we’re trying to get famous it’s ridiculous. The old FunkYou site was just for the local community, written entirely in romanian language. Most of the people coming to funkyou now did not even know about it until now. And that is due to our work, not Gabi’s.
By Glu on Aug 13, 2008
What you say is totally wrong, the products that you feature on your website are owned by OkapiStudio. She can use them but you can’t. So take them out right now. Take out Sunnyday from “partner store”, is from the same story….
If is ridiculous why the hell are u using our brand?
By Sam Purtill on Aug 13, 2008
Shouldn’t have let the domain name expire - but the fact that they were members of the original community that are doing this is absurd.
By Holy Man on Aug 13, 2008
I guess if it took Citrus 5 months to build what is currently there no one should expect much from the site in the future. Crap!
By Eduard Muresan on Aug 13, 2008
Gabi, it’s interesting that you should be the one setting moral standards and accusing people of stealing. Maybe you forgot why you left from Headvertising…
By Glu on Aug 13, 2008
Do not miss the point, and don’t bash Funkyou after you told us on the phone how much you liked it before and how you want to revive it.
This is not a stupid quarrel about a stupid domain name, this is about creative people stealing concepts and claiming they own them.
See if you can make a Computer Love website too, because they don’t have a book yet, and they don’t do workshops. Or some Nike high end shirts, because they only do sports clothing.
You’re such creative persons you could not come with a brand name for your lovely project. What a sad life.
It’s not the end of the world. Even though it seems we live in a very small world.
By Sam Purtill on Aug 13, 2008
What Gabi said ^^
By octavian on Aug 14, 2008
I personally think that it does matter who invented it first. And i do agree that Gabi made a mistake when left the domain to expire. From that point on, he can’t blame anyone for buying it. But from buying a domain name to reviving a project that was first invented by someone else is a long way.
In fact i think that is what we inherited from our roman ancestors “take it even if it doesn’t belong to ya and act as if you are the saviour”.
And “Maybe you forgot why you left from Headvertising…” is so typical. Let’s shit on eachother’s heads, mate. It will be so much fun. We don’t have arguments anymore, aye?
And Gabi, it would be a smart move to register Funkthem.ro ;)
By Dragos on Aug 14, 2008
This fight will surely boost Funkyou’s fame level sky high! :D
@Gabi Lungu: Actually, I liked a lot the old Funkyou, but it was your guys fault to let it fall like that. At least someone is doing something with it now and I am pretty curious what will YOU do about it, help out or continue this stupid fight :)
Oh and btw, have you actually registered Funkyou with OSIM or something?
Cuz if you didn’t, well, it can used by anyone that owns that domain it seems ;)
And of course, coming from you - a talented designer known to “borrow” concepts - all this is kinda funny :)
@Eduard Actually you should have checked with the domain owners before you made your move and have everything in writing that is OK to buy the domain and continue to use it. Or NOT! :D
Cuz Funkyou wasn’t a brand, it wasn’t registered anywhere and if you guys at Citrus bought the domain legally, then, what the heck, enjoy it! :))
So you guys, stop fighting and help out to make a success this new release of Funkyou!
By Glu on Aug 14, 2008
“a talented designer known to “borrow” concepts”?
“Maybe you forgot why you left from Headvertising…” - I explained very loud what happened at that time, while others was covering the things & hiding my name. If you wasn’t there, I will explain it again for you. But don’t talk about something you don’t know.
Funkyou is registered.
By octavian on Aug 14, 2008
Yeah, sure, we had to get to the OSIM part at a certain point. It’s all about common sense and respect, man. Not about OSIM and other bullcrap.
By Radu on Aug 14, 2008
“Cuz Funkyou wasn’t a brand”
@Dragos, are you sure about that? I think FunkYou was a pretty respected brand amongst romanian designers a couple years ago… I remember you being one of the biggest fans.
I don’t think it’s ok to profit from other people’s work without even saying “hello, you seem to have abandoned this, can we help or take over?” BEFORE buying the domain name and starting the project.
The thing that puzzles me is WHY did they need that specific name / domain? The new site doesn’t mention a thing about the old FunkYou, it could have been just as well named SunkYOu.ro / .com … Plus: why the heck a .ro domain for an international community (even if it’s aimed at Eastern Europe) .eu is the TLD for that guys!
This is one weird thing…
@Gabi you should probably repost the message you had on Funkyou back when the whole Head thing happened and explain the whole issue, otherwise people will make statements based on gossip / vague memories.
Cheers!
By Glu on Aug 14, 2008
I don’t care anymore about Head & co…
hahah, look how lame can be Eduard about the “TM” from their new funkyou logo. maybe if it was a car he was right.
“and another note… I know what TM stand for when used in a certain context. If you notice, the TM next to the funkyou logo is not the proper way to signal e trade mark. Fact is that we’re located in Timisoara, Romania and TM stands for our location… maybe some people were mislead but anybody knowing legislation about trade marks knows that this is not the way to signal that.”
http://designyoutrust.com/2008/08/11/funk-you-my-friends/#comments
By Dragos on Aug 14, 2008
@Radu I liked a lot the old Funkyou. Like I replied on my blog also, it helped me be a better designer through the exchange of information there and hanging out with peers is always a great way to learn. And back then, I don’t think most of us knew what a “brand” was, so there you go ;)
From my point of view, Funkyou was a community that simply died, like many others, even international ones. People get busy and forget to update websites, portfolios, etc. and its cool, but I really don’t see what’s the fuss with the new Funkyou? Really!
@Gabi Lungu I have these questions for you mate:
What were your plans with Funkyou in the long term?
Why did you let it die on us like that?
How you made the header of this blog and the Hyper wallpaper?
Please answer frankly so I don’t have to speculate ;)
Cheers,
Dragos
By Dragos on Aug 14, 2008
Oh and btw, I don’t take sides. But I respect whoever wins so…
By Glu on Aug 15, 2008
What were your plans with Funkyou in the long term?
- :)) i wont make them public.
Why did you let it die on us like that?
- if dead = on hold then: i explained at the beginning of my first post.
How you made the header of this blog and the Hyper wallpaper?
- stock photo (spent money on it, so i have all the rights to use it) + a lot of photoshop.