Are us developers liable for when a player plays copyrighted assets in-game (Akin to the same punishment/moderation for what users used to make in a personal server)? Specifically, what happens when a player plays a copyrighted sound in-game w/a tool we provide (E.g. A boombox)? Are we required to proactively moderate against copyrighted sound usage in our game by the players?
Does the limit w/250 copyrighted sounds in a game apply to what can be present in the game at any given moment, or only when the game is published (E.g. Sounds in an active server). Reason I ask this is because itâs easy for us (The developers) to limit the amount of sounds we use when a game at the time of publish, but if users use a tool like a boombox, it can potentially exceed the maximum allowed sounds. In our game specifically, we allow users to save/retrieve sound IDâs, but they can only play one at a time.
You need to ensure that this is not possible. You can do this by not allowing players to play any audio that is not labelled as âFreeâ in the library (check with GetProductInfo) and making sure that your players can only play from a fixed subset of max 250 songs from the APM collection that you can select yourself.
Can you provide a code snippet ala Anaminusâs that determines this âFreeâ state? I donât know MarketPlaceService well and the âFreeâ label seems ambiguous: title, description, free-to-take, a new metadata tag for this purpose, etc.
If youâre referring to the existing free-to-take/public domain/free model/whatever, that will interfere with non-APM songs on roblox that have been made free (although many of these I foresee being removed as they are copyrighted)
So just so Iâm understanding this correctly, when it comes to player played sounds, just make sure theyâre free to take. If they are free to take, they also canât be from the APM library? This seems like itâd involve making a lot of unnecessary calls to GetProductInfo.
AAA games use copyrighted music all the time, but they give credit where it is due. As long as there is no money being derived from the audio itself, and credit is given, it falls under the fair usage act.
Instead of just purging radios and the audio asset library, enforce a credit system. Youtube does this. Donât allow revenue to be generated from the audio. Revenue generated by the game itself is not related to the audio. Require that any copyrighted music used in game is credited under a âCreditsâ tab on a gameâs page or something similar. Even better, do what youtube does - automatically add the audio credit under the âcreditsâ page on the gameâs page.
Seriously, do not remove the ability to play any audio in-game. Players love playing music over radios in game. Not from presets, they want a specific song.
A youtube-like approach would be a lot better than just blatantly purging the audio pages. Allow developers to upload licences proving that they can use audio, etc.
This next part is probably irrelevant, but I find a lot of music I like through Roblox. A lot of the audio I have in my inventory serves as âbookmarksâ to songs I like listening to on youtube. A good portion of music I listen to nowadays is music I initially discovered on Roblox. Had it not been for Roblox, I wouldnât have found these songs and bought them for my personal music library. Purging the library will destroy this for everyone.
TL;DR : As long as a game isnât making money from audio itself, the use of said audio shouldnât be restricted.
EDIT : Will update this post with more feedback as it comes to mind.
I am referring to the âIsForSaleâ âIsPublicDomainâ key. For sounds this is set to true when the user checks this box: (this was formerly the âCopylockedâ button)
I agree this should be implemented in a less messy/confusing way.
This can be done in one GetProductInfo call, see Anaminusâ snippet above (only needs to be adjusted to filter out non-free assets as well with the same result from the GetProductInfo call).
I doubt an automated system would work because as soon as someone finds a way to trick the automated system into falsely-approving a song, the method will spread and illegal copies of other audio will be uploaded.
I donât know how efficient it would be but couldnât they have moderators that would check the audio off as good to go?
Anythingâs better than having to personally email Roblox to get your audio approved for use. That should all be done on site, without having to contact them via email externally.
I donât see why this is an issue. You registered your account to an e-mail, correct? At least with an e-mail, you can get a return e-mail with the status of your license acceptance. Currently Roblox moderation has very little in the way of feedback.
A credit system like @Reshiram110 suggested seems a lot more efficient, that way the information and credit about the audio is displayed right there on the game page too. Audio being accepted is a yes or no question.
I like Reshâs idea because it seems a lot more âfriendlyâ to me than having to send an e-mail. I feel like in the long run something along the lines of his idea should be incorporated. Whether itâs by e-mail or not. Itâd be nice to keep track of the tracks that are used in game on the games page along with if they were accepted or (if declined they wouldnât show in the credits). It would need a lot of refining but yea.
Anything to keep track of what songs you can use in your game would be nice and as long as we can use the music weâve always liked using (with permission of course) we wouldnât mind as much. Iâm questioning if things like Nintendo music will be allowed with permission considering Youtube allows videos with Nintendo music in them (such as gameplay) and that doesnât result in your video being taken down.
I am using music that is copyrighted by a popular artist but I have written permission to use it from the artist directly. It will probably be automatically flagged. If the audio is flagged for copyright, how can I dispute the decision?
