Apologies if im posting this in the wrong place, but Im pretty sure this is the best place to post this kind of question
You will need some context first:
I had made a small map for a game, and in return the developer offered me 10% of the games revenue in exchange for the map. All was going well, I was being paid, up until a week later, the group was sold to a more well-known developer who will be unnamed. I got a DM from this developer telling me that the 10% is too much and that he would have to pay me flat. I tried my best to convince him to let me keep my 10%, but he threatened to kick me off the team if I didn’t comply, so we agreed on 8K, and 10-25K for future maps (Important because I wouldn’t have done the 8K without knowing I wouldn’t be able to build again) Fast forward to about 2 days ago I find out I’ve been completely demoted (un-notified by the way, I found that out myself), and the game has had an update. This update included a new map, however, this map was an exact copy of my original map, but the colors of the bricks were changed, and a few new assets were added to it. This map contains my assets inside of it, and I am uncredited, and unpaid for it, and it was not in our original agreement that he could do as he liked with my maps. I need to know now, can I take action, what actions should I take, and how would I go about taking those actions?
Apologies for the long essay, just really frustrated and confused right now
EDIT: I talked to the developer, and he is being non compliant. What steps should I take now?
I think you should. That basically sounds like a breach of contract even if it’s ROBLOX with Robux. Robux is basically real money and your IP is definitely real IP.
Yes, you can. you can easily take down an entire game if they use at-least one of your assets.
To make it even better for your case, changing colors or proportions of anything you made does not invalidate your ownership over it, because you were the one who created it in studio in the first place. That is usually how Roblox checks copyright; by checking who created the part/model first.
They should still report it. And know what? @Jiraiyeh Link the place that copied yours and yours please so we can have multiple people reporting it. Thanks!
I’ll definitely try talking to the new owner first, as he is a high-ranking developer, and I don’t want to start trouble with him, if all else fails, I’ll attempt a DMCA, or attempt to get the public involved as that usually works for cases like this, but for the most part, i’d like to make this a private matter and have it solved peacefully.
Maybe, but if a high-ranking developer is making money by stealing your asset, don’t you think maybe he’s stealing other people’s assets too and they’re all being quiet about it like you are? Instead of taking action against him immediately or trying to be nice to him immediately, what I would do is look into where he got his assets and see if he’s doing this repeatedly. If he his then I’d take action against him with the other developers he hypothetically would be stealing from, if this is the first time I’d say this is just some kind of misunderstanding and I’d just try to work out the contract again.