Answers to your recent questions regarding our DMCA policy

Please see our Developer Hub Article for the most up-to-date and in-depth information.

Thank your all the great questions. We wanted to follow up with additional information that will hopefully answer many of them.

Why does Roblox have a new DMCA policy?

We don’t. Our existing DMCA policy has been in place since we launched the platform. The purpose of these posts is to remind the community of our policy and to provide an update about some improvements we’re making with respect to how we support the community in following it.

How do I know if I received a strike?

Anyone that has a strike should already know that. If you receive a DMCA notice for content that you posted, you are notified by Roblox. The notification will include information on how you may respond to claims of infringement if you the claim was inaccurate or filed in error. That said, we plan to reach out to all devs that have one or more strikes to remind them of their status.

How does Roblox assign strikes?

We will only give strikes to people for assets uploaded onto our platform. Strikes are only given in response to DMCA takedown requests from IP holders (rather than for content identified by our automated filtering tools). Strikes are assigned after the completion of the DMCA notice-and-takedown process described in our Terms of Use (link: https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004647846-Roblox-Terms-of-Use).

If you file a DMCA counter-notice (which asserts that a takedown notice is erroneous), you will not get a strike until the resolution of that process. In some cases strikes can expire; in other cases they are permanent. We will provide more information on how this process works in the strike notifications mentioned above. In truly egregious circumstances, involving repeated acts of willful infringement, Roblox reserves the right to terminate an account even after a single strike, but we expect that scenario will be rare.

How do I determine if my content is infringing?

In general, you should limit what you upload to content that is original, i.e., content that you have created. Using someone else’s characters, logos, brand names, or other material can expose you to risk of takedown notices and infringement claims. Ultimately, the responsibility is yours to make sure that you have proper rights to any material you upload.

Please check out this post for more information about infringing content: DMCA Guidelines

How do I find and remove potentially infringing content?

You can browse through the Create page to identify content you have uploaded. You can also use the Library tab to search for content you have uploaded by “Creator” name. If you previously uploaded content which you wish to take down, you can use the archive feature to remove this content.

Rights holders can use Roblox’s DMCA process (described here: https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004647846-Roblox-Terms-of-Use) to submit notices about content that they believe violate their IP rights.

What about assets used in Brand Events?

Content that is created by Roblox and provided to the community is available for you to use on our platform. By contrast, content that is provided by Roblox’s brand partners (including content used by Roblox in events) is typically made available only for use for a limited time and for particular purposes. So unless you have permission directly from that brand or from Roblox, you should not use those assets.

If I receive a strike, am I still eligible for DevEx?

As long as your account remains in good standing, you will remain eligible to submit a request to Developer Exchange to be reviewed per our current process.

If my account was previously terminated, can I get back on Roblox?

Terminations under Roblox’s repeat infringer policy are permanent. While we have an appeal process to make sure that mistakes were not made, if we determine that a user is actually a repeat copyright infringer, that user’s account will be terminated and cannot be reinstated.

Additional resources on Copyright laws and best practices:

159 Likes

Alright! Thank you. This did answer a lot of my questions! Especially the devEX question.

7 Likes

I think the recent enforcement of the DMCA system will be a shock too a lot of the developers due to the fact that you never enforced it before hand.

I am of the belief if it isn’t yours don’t use it without permission, and a lot of developers find that hard to conceive. I think this is a good change for the better for Roblox, as Roblox is meant to be a “gateway” if you will into game development and programming, the enforcement will teach a lot of developers the basics of copyright law and how and where it is used.

One thing I do have an issue with is this line here:

I think there is a huge disconnect between whoever writes these and the people who actually use the website. Too my knowledge there is no search feature on the develop page,


Now, my eyesight isn’t amazing but I can’t see any search bar anywhere on that page which makes searching through my content a lot easier. We do have the global search but my experience with that is iffy at best, and I don’t plan on searching through everyone’s models on Roblox to find my own.

47 Likes

Thank you guys for clearing up some of this confusion, though what will come about old users who have uploaded copyrighted stuff that no longer use Roblox? Some have places that would detriment the community if they were to be deleted.

8 Likes

I’ve been made ware of multiple enforcement of the guidelines before these announcements.


On a side note, I’m happy to see this now being answered. (Sizzleburger and PBB for example)

Even if it’s a bit vague.

5 Likes

I thought this made it clear that they always enforced DMCA. It’s actually illegal not to.

3 Likes

Thanks for clearing it up.

My main question is, a few months ago, some copyrighted t-shirts I uploaded got deleted with a warning to my account. But I can’t recall it mentioning a strike in the warning, nor did I get some other type of notification. Would that have counted as a strike?

2 Likes

That doesn’t quite answer my question from the previous thread. There were people who were terminated before the email to remove IP violations were available. Does this answer still apply to them, despite them not being able to have done anything before being terminated?

11 Likes

I am aware of a lot of groups on Roblox which are centred around IPs of which none of them own or have rights too use.

2 Likes

As always, it is up to the copyright holder to deal with this. In fact, Sizzleburger and Frappe was renamed after such a case occurred.

5 Likes

How long do strikes last? For example if I get one strike in may 2019, and another one in september, will I then be terminated if I accidentally get a third strike in 2025?

11 Likes

I think they mean the studio toolbox search. However it is kind of a hassle since you can’t get URL’s from the toolbox, as far as I know.

2 Likes

Are strikes permanent? If I get a strike in 2019, then 2026, then 2030, will I be terminated regardless of the huge gaps?

3 Likes

@konlon15

It says explicitly in the OP. The answer is “maybe”.

3 Likes

While you can’t directly get a URL from the toolbox, you can make it redirect you to the asset on your web browser.
Right-click the asset > Click “View In Browser”
Doing this will open a new tab in your web browser which has the asset you wanted to locate.

3 Likes

It sounds like there is a misunderstanding here. The DMCA does not say, “you must remove all copyrighted content from every copyright holder.”

In fact, the DMCA says opposite! The DMCA says, “you must remove copyrighted content when asked to by the copyright holder and enforce punishments on repeat copyright infringers.”

Roblox has been removing copyrighted content when asked to for years, and has punished repeat infringers for years.

There is no change in policy or enforcement, the policy is just being posted to the devforums in a more visible, public place. Nothing has changed.


Those groups centered around IPs that they do not own are still up because the owners of those IPs have not requested takedowns. Groups have been taken down for IP infringement in the past. Similarly, assets have been removed for IP infringement in the past, with one major example being in the last year.

Policy and enforcement has not changed at all. Expect things to continue on exactly how they have been for the last few years. The only changes may be in tools to view your copyright infringement status and tools to remove copyright-infringing assets.

14 Likes

How are counternotices handled? Who decides whether the request is legit?

1 Like

I think they mean the search on the library tab. You can look through creators public content by typing their name. You can also search for certain models that the creator might have made. Including your own stuff.

3 Likes

If you receive a DMCA notice for content that you posted, you are notified by Roblox.

Will we be notified of strikes via email or via PM’s on the Roblox site? A lot of devs can’t check every PM.

4 Likes

Pretty nice that Roblox confirmed that the strikes are not automated, unlike on some other platforms.

4 Likes