Hello!
So I’ve been trying to find out whether or not that I have permission to use UGC accessories in my game.
For example, if I wanted to use the Demonic Greatsword as a weapon in my game would I be allowed to? Or would I have to ask explicit permission from the creator of the item to use it?
I’ve searched through the forum for answers but haven’t really found anything that provides a clear cut explanation.
You may compare this situation to the usage of shirts and pants from the catalog in games however considering the fact that most shirts have been copied and that everyone (who has Premium) has permission to create them I’d reckon it’s that this is under different circumstances.
Apologies if this is the wrong category to post this in, thanks.
8BitMick
You should always ask the owner of the IP for permission before using anything that you didn’t create.
People in the UGC program retain the IP for our items, and while many of us likely don’t mind other devs using our items, it’s more professional to ask regardless instead of taking the risk that we actually don’t want you using it and you ending up with a copyright strike.
It’s always best to play it safe when using others IP.
I mean, if you acn wear UGC hats on roblox, you should be able to use them in your game? I’ve seen them used in games like Robloxian High School, and Sakura High’s avatar editor uses majority ugc hair. I suggest asking @SilentSwords about how that stuff goes.
Lovely to hear this. Was worried that it’d just be a case where Roblox considered it the same as regular accessories, and games would be able to reap major profits over my hard work. Have had that happen before with an model I released for free, so it was a concern I had here.
“You grant ROBLOX a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free right and license (with the right to sublicense to any person or entity, whether a user of the Service or not)”
“Do not copy, transfer, display, or otherwise use the UGC of other users outside of Roblox , including on other gaming platforms or on physical mediums, such as clothing.”
So this is in the rules. Which probably means you own the rights to your model outside of roblox but it can be used anywhere inside of roblox in any game?
@SchwarzWalde those very likely are used with permission.
@unvexed, as far as I know, the stuff we make in UGC is still ours and we can express the right to limit who can use it for game purposes. Due to how new the UGC program is, a lot of documentation is out of date and needs to be updated, and everything is still highly fluid and changing. Best not to risk it.
And even if it were “public,” ethical and professional dev studios owe it to creators to ask for permission of all IP (unless it’s explicitly a CC0 license or similar) they didn’t create but are profiting from. We’re all on the dev forums and on twitter, it takes two seconds to ask and anything less is bad practice.
I’m doing exactly this right now. Even with the relatively small number of users currently in the program, I’m finding that more than half of them are either not on Twitter (or not discoverable by their Roblox username), or have “this user cannot be messaged”, and not open to message via the Roblox website. It feels like a formal system for doing this, on the platform, would be useful. At some point, the number of UGC creators is going to be too large for games like mine–which use the whole catalog in their avatar customizers–to reasonably contact them all and maintain a whitelist for.
That’s a good observation - and there’s certainly something to be said about making it easier to do the right thing, especially since you’re finding it difficult to do so at the already small scale of the program currently.
No, you’re creating a derivative work of their creation. Even if you swap out the texture with you one made yourself- you are still using their mesh, that they own.
However even if you edit the mesh, you are still using what is originally theirs, edited or not you are still creating and using a derivative work and will still need permission from the original creator to use. Unless the creator has explicitly stated that you may use the work with modification or other terms.
This is basically what your reply from Roblox says, but in a bit more context, at the end of the day no matter how you word the question you must first and foremost ask permission to use whatever is not yours to avoid any problems in the future that could arise from not doing so!
So UGC creators have the right to copyright strike a game that contains their items, how about the packages created by unity devs that are uploaded by Roblox? Roblox Devs can profit from the use of their creation without owning it, but because it was uploaded by Roblox - they have no right to claim like UGC creators?.
I had this concern too, but was told by a staff member they contact those artists and that those packages have contracts that allow this to happen. The artist understands that their content is open.
Roblox isn’t just taking assets from the Unity marketplace
