I guess I can understand why they don’t police it. It would take a ton of resources, be difficult to judge and best case scenario is they lose a ton of revenue. Also with the exception of this thread it’s not an issue too commonly brought up. It’d be great if they policed it - I make a super hero game and a lot of my competitors benefit from copyrights, however I’m not surprised that they don’t.
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As a clothing designer, I have a few pieces of advice.
- Avoid outfits with logos on them (ie. Adidas, Nike). I say this because I’ve literally had claims made against me for using logos without permission on my outfits. I was banned for 3 days (not even a warning) for having a tank top with a Starbucks cup drawing on it. Just avoid logos if you can.
- Credit. The. Designers. Always credit them please — in the description or on a post (such as in DevForums).
- Do your best to be sure you have the original outfits/creators. Designers lack recognition as it is, so please make sure that when you find something you like, it’s the original! That way when you do give credit it’ll be to the proper person.
- As a courtesy, mention to the creators that you’d like to use their clothing in your game! Maybe mention the fact you aren’t gaining profit from it (unless you plan to… offer them some sort of payment) & will give credits!
Thank you for caring about the usage of clothing!! Truly, it means a lot to see someone not push us designers to the back of the room 
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This is what Roblox will probably do:
- If your clothes use trademarked symbols of large corporations, you won’t be able to get featured until you remove them, unless Roblox overlooks this because it’s hard to see, very few of your clothes show them, or Roblox doesn’t see them.
- You shouldn’t have a problem with DevEx unless one of (or many of) the clothing authors contacts Roblox asking you to stop using their content – and only if Roblox cares about their wants. If Roblox does, then the most likely result is that you have to remove their clothing from your game.
You’re probably good to use the clothing, just credit the authors, obey any requests to have clothing removed, and start purchasing your own replacement designs when you have the money. Ideally you would ask the original artists if you can use the clothing before opening your game to the public, but the original artist can be hard to find with all of the clothes copying that Roblox has.
Worst case scenario – you have to remove the clothing you didn’t make/purchase in order to be featured and devex. As the clothing is not a major part of your game, this should not be a huge issue for you.
On the other hand, here's what copyright law says: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
- Using others’ clothing designs without permission is a violation of copyright.
- Roblox will probably overlook this because the content is already on their site, and Roblox has no way of knowing that it’s not your content.
- The clothing authors could send a DMCA takedown notice for the clothing in your game for you using it without permission. This would likely cause your game to be suspended until you remove their clothing from the game.
- This is no different from a music producer sending a DMCA takedown notice to YouTube when a video on someone else’s channel plays their music.
- Sending a DMCA takedown notice does not mean that all content has to be removed from the site. Just like on YouTube, the copyright owner can keep their content up while taking yours down.
- Nevertheless, Roblox could arbitrarily decide to remove all of the content to make things “easier” for themselves, but removing the copyright owner’s legally allowed content in addition to the illegal copyright-violating content is an arbitrary decision. This is a risk that a Roblox user would take if using the DMCA takedown system for this purpose.
- I have not heard of a Roblox user or developer using the DMCA takedown system to take down their own Roblox content that’s used illegally, but it should be entirely possible, as it is United States law. It generally is paired with legal knowledge or representation that most Roblox users and developers do not have or cannot pay for.
- When you submit content to Roblox, you do not grant everyone on Roblox the ability to use it, you only grant Roblox the ability to use it. Furthermore, you do not grant Roblox the ability to make games with your content, so if someone’s content is used in a game without the copyright owner’s permission then it’s being used illegally. Section 6(B)(3) of the Terms of Use discusses this.
- I suggest reading the whole thing. A summarized quote: "For any UGC that you have ever Provided or that you will Provide … you retain all copyrights that you may hold in the UGC, and (b) in consideration of using the Service and the potential to earn Robux as discussed in the Robux section, you grant us a … license (with the right to sublicense to any person or entity, whether a user of the Service or not) … to use in any way the UGC that you Provide, in whole or in part, including modifications and derivative works, … including for publicity and marketing purposes (except that you are not granting us any license to make new or derivative video games using your UGC). "
- To be clear, Roblox can allow others to use content you submit, but this permission is not given by default; it must be made in a new agreement. Furthermore, Roblox cannot grant others permission to make video games using UGC. If you use others’ clothing as part of your (video) game without permission, you are absolutely violating copyright.
I think it would be worse if Roblox did try to police this.
Roblox denying copyright-violators something as major as DevEx puts Roblox in a concerning position – they are policing content, which might give an expectation that they police all content.
As it is right now, Roblox does not have the responsibility of policing content. That is on the copyright holders. If the copyright holders see copyright-violating content then they can send a DMCA takedown notice. The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) makes it so that Roblox is not liable for the copyright violations of its users’ content, and this is a very good thing because there’s way too much content for Roblox to effectively police. If Roblox was liable for copyright violations on its platform, then Roblox as it is today would probably not exist.
If Roblox starts heavily policing copyright and trademark violations, then I imagine Roblox could be held liable for any copyrighted content that slips through. I am not a lawyer, though, so I have no firm basis on which to say this.
Making money from copyrighted content can get you in trouble, not Roblox. Just because your game is on Roblox doesn’t keep you safe. Corporations like Microsoft and Nintendo arbitrarily choose not to take legal action on you personally for the copyright violation because Roblox taking the content down is “good enough” for them. Making money off of copyrighted material is risky business, and doing it on Roblox does not protect you.
I am not a lawyer, and none of this is legal advice. If you have any concerns about this or need legal advice related to these topics, contact a lawyer specializing in copyright law.
8 Likes
Alright, thanks!
Thanks for the in-depth reply. It really puts it into perspective.
Hey, I know this is old but I just wanted to point out that games using other brands’ logos in their game is helping their game and the other brand by promoting them. Using others’ work is totally different tho and it is stealing. For example a dev creating a McDonalds is kinda a win win. It’s giving players a place they’re familiar with, promoting McDonalds, and it is original work besides the logo/name ofc