is MUL Link to inmediares Productions, LLC has been Hijack?

[Marauder]

Mechwarrior, BattleMech, 'Mech and Aerotech are registered trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of Inmediares Productions, LLC.

Went to MUL to see that website, Love it BTW, and i was curious to see who is inmediares Productions, LLC end up on a Japanese website talking about constipation and Diet. the link is at the bottom left

Happen to me, they got in on multi levels, difficult to get rid of it, end up using  backup 2 months old.. need to be sure version is up to date and no security risk is open to exploit.

M.

[Pat Payne]

It might not be something that sinister. I remember many years ago, there was a SNAFU in URL indexing, and when I tried to go to animenewsnetwork.com, it sent me to the website of the American Red Cross.

[nckestrel]

Looks like they lost the domain.  It's owned by somebody in Japan now (as of Feb 2017).

[worktroll]

My understanding is that the company formed by Randall Bills, Loren Coleman, and a number of others - In Media Res -was formed to be a legal entity required for the move of the BT licence from FanPro. Catalyst Game Labs is an imprint - 'Brand Name" - of IMR, which does the business of making games. If there weren't so little money involved, I'd say it was for tax purposes :)

The fact that there's more than one company called In Media Res should hardly be a suprise, especially when that company's in another country. True fact - the company I work for comes up both as what we do, and as a major US chain of old people's homes. Linked? Nope. There are only so many words in any language.

And IMR (Seattle version) doesn't need a web presence; it's mainly an accounting construct, along the lines of a 'shelf company'.

So conspirasphere, calm down. Seattle IMR didn't "lose" the domain - it never needed one. It has fronts like CGL that do, and that do.

And good luck to all constipated Japanese, may their IMR serve them well! O0

W.

[Archangel]

Well technically they did 'lose' it whether intentionally by discontinuing payments or unintentionally by forgetting to pay.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Well technically they did 'lose' it whether intentionally by discontinuing payments or unintentionally by forgetting to pay.

Given the domain is up right now, when did they technically"lose" it?

[Sigil]

Given the domain is up right now, when did they technically"lose" it?

The DNS record was last updated 2-9-17 out of Osaka, Japan.  It looks like InMediaRes Productions LLC was involved in an Involuntary Bankruptcy back in April 2010 too... it came up while I was trolling around...

[Peter Smith]

My understanding is that the company formed by Randall Bills, Loren Coleman, and a number of others - In Media Res -was formed to be a legal entity required for the move of the BT licence from FanPro. Catalyst Game Labs is an imprint - 'Brand Name" - of IMR, which does the business of making games.

Pretty much.

Signed:
An other.

[Giovanni Blasini]

The DNS record was last updated 2-9-17 out of Osaka, Japan.  It looks like InMediaRes Productions LLC was involved in an Involuntary Bankruptcy back in April 2010 too... it came up while I was trolling around...

And the domain registration?  Have you done a WHOIS on it, which indicates the domain is not held by a Japanese company?

[Frabby]

The DNS record was last updated 2-9-17 out of Osaka, Japan.  It looks like InMediaRes Productions LLC was involved in an Involuntary Bankruptcy back in April 2010 too... it came up while I was trolling around...

2010 was the year of the Frank Trollman vs. Loren Coleman shakeup. Some debtor(s) filed for bankruptcy against IMR but iirc the case was dropped after the debts were paid.
Speaking of Loren Coleman, what's he doing these days? It's been ages since I read his name on a new piece of BT fiction, has he given up on writing?

[Sartris]

I think the broader point here is that if InMediaRes is no longer in control of the site, the link should be removed.

Unless there is a large crossover of BT fans who are also interested in Japanese health and fitness sites? I don't go to cons so I don't know what kind of shenanigans go on there.

[sadlerbw]

Speaking of Loren Coleman, what's he doing these days? It's been ages since I read his name on a new piece of BT fiction, has he given up on writing?

He was at Gencon last year. He received a good amount of ribbing from the other Catalyst folks in attendance about the still-unfinished novel he has been working in for who knows how long. In general I got the impression he was spending more time on the general business work, not so much the actual game work. There is a surprising amount of work involved in running a business that has little to nothing to do with what the business actually creates or does.

[Giovanni Blasini]

I think the broader point here is that if InMediaRes is no longer in control of the site, the link should be removed.

Unless there is a large crossover of BT fans who are also interested in Japanese health and fitness sites? I don't go to cons so I don't know what kind of shenanigans go on there.

I think the broader point that has already been made is that the Japanese company and American company happen to have the same name without actually being the same company.

Unless you missed the post where that was expressly stated.

[nckestrel]

We passed having a point a long time ago, and are merely sticking people with whatever point we happened to find laying around now.

[cavingjan]

If I'm understanding Randall's FB post correctly, Loren and his wife just opened a new toy store called Wishes in Lynnwood, WA. 

[Archangel]

I think the broader point that has already been made is that the Japanese company and American company happen to have the same name without actually being the same company.

Unless you missed the post where that was expressly stated.

I must have missed it too.  Where is it expressly stated that the Japanese company has the exact same name as InMediaRes Productions LLC?  As far as I can tell Worktroll merely stated that more than one company could be using 'In Media Res' and speculating that it could be the case here.  Have you translated the website and confirmed that the two have the same names?

Besides who says they have to have the same name?  There are plenty of smaller companies/stores whose web address shows no direct relationship with the actual name of the company store.  Not to mention that the web address in question is an acronym and can be expanded into a wide variety of possible names, sayings/mottos, etc.

I have to agree with Sartris that if InMediaRes Productions LLC isn't actually related to the site then the link should be removed or at least be replaced with a link to a site they are actually related to.  But then we are talking about an organization whose negligent attitude towards maintaining/monitoring its internet presence is killing off its business so in all likelihood nothing is going to change.

[worktroll]

We'll add it to the list of outstanding updates for the website.

And Sigil, it's probably a fair guess that around 2010, when resolving the unpleasantnesses going on & paying out what was owed, the IMR company probably decided that they didn't need an IMR web presence, and have concentrated (such as things are) under the CGL banner for their online needs. Now I don't know that for sure, but it does seem reasonable. IMR/CGL is not cash-rich.

(Note: FFG, another US-based game company, was relatively recently taken over by Asmodee, a bigger Euro company. Things are, it seems, tough all over. Wonder if there are still 145 or so FFG employees?)

[Bosefius]

(Note: FFG, another US-based game company, was relatively recently taken over by Asmodee, a bigger Euro company. Things are, it seems, tough all over. Wonder if there are still 145 or so FFG employees?)

Wait, Asmodee bought FFG?!

Edit: Just read up, I missed this somehow

[VhenRa]

If I understand correctly, that's what lost FFG the Warhammer 40K RPG licence (or whatever you call it).