We want to comment on something that has recently popped up in social media surrounding the use of the “oof” sound and claims of its ownership by Tommy Tallarico.
Roblox’s founders, Erik and David, got the oof sound (along with all the original Roblox sounds) from a stock sound CD-ROM they purchased of licensed, copyright free sounds (not from an illegal website as Tommy has suggested on social media).
We deeply respect the rights of IP creators, and we have built our platform over the past 12+ years based on respecting and honoring creators.
Despite the fact that Tommy has no copyright to the “oof” sound (and in response to our requests he has presented us no proof of ownership to it) we’ve nevertheless been working in good faith to reach a fair resolution with him. As part of that, we have asked Tommy to become part of our creative community and we look forward to exploring that opportunity with him further.
Some programmer art from the early days of Roblox has become iconic, including the original Roblox face which was drawn by David Baszucki. That said, we believe the success of Roblox has been driven by our imaginative developers and artists, who’ve spent millions of hours and creative energy to build on the platform we’ve worked hard to create – not the default faces, bodies, and sounds from the original Roblox. Tommy has never played Roblox, so he may not have a full understanding of how our success has been built by our creator community.
As we’ve replaced original programmer art with UGC content, each element on Roblox (experiences, assets, etc.) has flourished and expanded. In the future, 100% of all avatar bodies, heads, hair, accessories and clothing will be UGC – true to our vision. We plan to do the same things with sounds – enabling people to choose community created sounds for common platform events (when they enter a game, at the end of game, etc.).
Developer confidence and trust is essential in fostering any new platform. This is why we are shedding light here.
