I’m working on a game and we’re planning to allow fan submissions, primarily for audio but also for artwork.
Are there any recommended best practices or tools for managing these submissions to help mitigate potential DMCA issues? For example, do asset descriptions or submission logs offer any legal protection?
Currently, we’re considering asking contributors to include language like “for use by [Game Title]” in their asset descriptions and to send us an email granting permission for free use. While this might be seen as excessive, especially since these are community members, we want to ensure we’re handling this properly.
I’d love to hear any guidance, examples, or references to DMCA guidelines or Roblox’s own processes. Insights from both a developer perspective and from what Roblox’s DMCA team prefers would be especially helpful.
Thanks in advance!
[P.S - let me know if another category best fits this post, thanks]
You cannot in any way upload or distribute content that you do not own to Roblox.
Email permission granting is fine, but make sure to preserve the email from the artist both physically and digitally. Such email between you and the artist is a binding legal agreement, unless one side (or both) agree to invalidate it, none of the sides have right to use tools such as DMCA against each other.
If you get into DMCA (or any other copyright issues), make sure you’ll have the email with the artists’ permission ready as it’s basic proof that would legally held.
Example of an agreement that I’ve used previously (modified a little for you).
I, LEGAL NAME (also known as STAGE NAME), hereby agree and consent to YOUR LEGAL NAME. to handle my rights on the Roblox platform and utilize my music. I grant YOUR LEGAL NAME. non-exclusive, royalty-free worldwide rights to publish, advertise, and share my music to be used in YOUR GAME NAME on Roblox platform. Additionally, I agree not to pursue any legal action against YOUR LEGAL NAME. regarding the handling, publishing, or distribution of my music on the Roblox platform. I understand and agree that the delivery of my music to the Roblox platform is permanent. While my releases can be removed from the YOUR GAME NAME, they cannot be removed from Roblox once published unless both sides agree to.