Alright, so firstly please excuse my unwarranted opinion; this is something I’ve been feeling for a while about this whole debacle and I think it needs to be said: there’s a distinct lack of professionalism and informed discussion around this whole issue. Thankfully, the discussion on here seems to be somewhat more productive and less flame-y than on other platforms such as Twitter, and many people on this thread have raised excellent points which provide valuable material to the discussion.
I have, unfortunately, seen some… less productive responses on this thread. There’s additionally a lot of people assuming this is a binary ‘Roblox-vs-Tommy’ issue; the reality is this is potentially a tangled, complex case, and we don’t have all the details, nor a definitive answer.
Look, i see why you’re saying this and i’m happy you’re sorta still neutral on the whole thing.
But it’s important to note that he has a lot more proof than you think, it just hasnt been made available to the public.
Just because he chooses to show only one contract to the public doesnt mean he has no rights to his sound effect.
His lawyer would’ve convinced him not to go on with this whole thing if he didnt have enough to go on, the best thing to do is to just wait until the actual court debate starts. Which is when we’ll probably see all the proof he has.
You are missing something—something major. He has compiled all theoretical evidence to support him in this case, but he lacks physical evidence (or fails to publicly disclose physical evidence). He can banter about his theoretically accurate nonsense but he fails to provide physical evidence. Please read the aforementioned as it may potentially educate you on something you are misinformed about.
Theoretical evidence: his contract
Physical evidence required:
As a US citizen, you have to register your creative work with the US Copyright Office and you have not.
It’s unreasonable to assume all the evidence is supporting him when he fails to provide the evidence. He failed to register his creative work with the US Copyright Office and therefor Roblox are unanimously irresponsible and not liable.
I’ve seen both sides of this, and I’m left to wonder why hes so open and public with it. I understand hes annoyed that they used his sound effect without permission, but robloxs understanding is they legally bought it and it was all fine and dandy.
I simply don’t understand why he wouldn’t try to resolve it behind closed doors, make a little tweet about it regarding the situation and set the cogs in motion for court where legal professionals can see both sides of the story, look at the evidence and make a decision of whose in the right.
Regardless of whos in the right or wrong, Tommy would of had a lot less hassle had he opted to remain private about the ordeal instead of getting into a twitter boxing match with the roblox twitter community, who are mostly children and don’t really care or understand what they say to other people.
Edit:
I firmly believe that anything related to your work, money and copyright should be resolved behind closed doors and using the legal system before trying to expose a company when both sides are a bit confused to whos in the right of wrong.
Ultimately the best thing Tommy can do now is make a final twitter post saying hes going to remain private and actually go to court and let the professionals do their job.
I do encourage discussion about the issue! All I’m trying to say is that we shouldn’t ignore or accidentally overlook cases where a third party may actually be at fault, rather than Tommy or Roblox directly. It would also be unwise to suggest that one party or another is overall ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ at this current stage; with the information we have, it could be incorrect and would be unhelpful.
Expertly described. As discussed in this Twitter post:
Genuine question (And don’t take this the wrong way, you’re owed your pound of flesh), if you/your lawyer are planning on taking legal action against Roblox, why are you posting about this on social media?
Tom’s doing this for publicity (at least partially) or to degrade Roblox as a company. In my opinion, Tom’s response is unsubstantiated. It fails to require fundamental evidence. Additionally, there’s a lack of professionalism. It’s a play of self-victimization. I don’t mean to incite any rumors, but this is the situation in my eyes.
I’d like to finalize something before I disengage from this discussion. Unfortunately there is misinformation between both parties, and that leads others into assuming false knowledge. That makes this discussion relevant, and that produces all this speculation. As mentioned previously, the cause of this nonsense is from social media, hence the publicity.
The reason this isn’t being settled behind doors is because there is nothing to settle. Roblox owns the copyright to the “oof” sound effect.
Okay. This is interesting. I honestly didn’t hear about this 'till now as I don’t use social media, but this seems like Tommy did make the “oof” sound, and created it for the company, but it might have been that Tommy created it, it was put on a disc, and Roblox allegedly bought it as copyright-free sound.
Some tweets that need attention.
@Mariofly5 - I’m starting to get annoyed. Your contract states that you own any audios you make for the company. HOWEVER, It does not automatically grant your work copyright protection. As a US citizen, you have to register your creative work with the US Copyright Office and you have not
It definitely proves that you made the audio but even so, you don’t have any grounds to go after them if the audio isn’t protected by any copyright laws.
One that I fully support:
SwitchGamingClub - I think this whole thing can be sorted with a single question - how much is Tommy asking for?
If he’s looking for $400 & a credit, I can understand his frustration.
If he’s is looking for $10,000+ simply because Roblox is popular then I want nothing to do with him or his argument
(Don’t take seriously):
ACheesyQuesadilla - How about you just let roblox keep the sound and be grateful that they made your sound loved by millions?
Anyways, I also have one more question. Why does this come up almost 12+ years after ROBLOX started using the sound?
And another tweet that is like what @TheCardMechanic stated:
PieWindmill - Not to be rude or anything but you could have sent them this in private rather than on social media
I agree that he should’ve resolved the whole thing in private and it’s likely that he was. Because i sorta remember that he tried doing that. But it was getting him nowhere.
It’s important to note that he has a lot of evidence, but only him and his lawyer has access to them aside from the one contact he made public on Twitter.
If he didnt have enough proof to support his case, his lawyer would’ve stopped him before anything huge happens. Suing a billion-dollar company without enough proof is an important thing to factor.
Before anyone states he doesnt have enough proof, let’s just wait until the actual court-debate starts first.
I’ve seen his claim about roblox trying to tear down his reputation and its a bit of a weird claim. Roblox as a company has came out with this post, told the public what is happening as members of their platform are engaging in twitter spats with him and said they are trying to resolve the issue behind closed doors. In my opinion they’ve done nothing to damage his reputation at all. I’m not sure if hes getting confused from developers arguing with him and hes assuming they work for roblox?
Regarding your edit, its not up to us to decide who owns the copyright. We can all have opinions but I can think we can all agree than everyone is entitled to use the court systems to resolve things. Bundle up your evidence and head to court to present your argument in a civil way rather than fighting on Twitter.
This post goes for everyone saying why hasn’t roblox just paid tommys fee or anything. As I stated in my last post, both sides are confused to who owns the copyright. Tommy thinks he owns it, roblox thinks they own it.
Play this situation out in your head. Roblox buys the CD with all the copyright and whatnot from a company, everyine is fine and dandy. Now, over a decade later someone pops up and goes “Hey! Thats mine! Pay up!” And you go “???”. Would you payup to someone who pops along over a decade later? He can post his claims and images on twitter all he wants. But I fully believe it is in robloxs best interest to go to court, let everyone present their ownership and find out whos in the right.
TommyTallarico - We would prefer NOT to take legal action in hopes that they will just do the right thing. But the more they try to tear down my reputation… the harder it is for me to want to work with them r\to provide a solution that is fair for everyone
and as @iacxx stated and I previously stated, Why is this coming up 12+ years later!?!?
This is incorrect and objectively silly to believe. If, for example, he owned the copyright contents of the sound effect, he would still have valid and legal evidence to support him. He could have been credited and earned all the money righteously.
He is incorrect and contemplates the credit and fame, which is why he is settling it publicly instead of privately. Tom is aware that he cannot successfully compromise privately, so he intends to fool people maliciously.
What you just wrote was inaccurate misinformation, and nonsense.
He did not try compromising behind doors; I can already assure this. If it was getting no where, he’d needn’t maliciously misinform people about the situation. Additionally, publicly misinforming people will not support his legal case and position.
This conclusion is more than silly. He is in no position to publicly banter about nonsense that he cannot publicly support. Ask yourself this: if only his lawyer has access to the evidence, how do you know that if you don’t have access to the evidence?
What? He can do whatever he intends to publicly; his lawyer is not affiliated with his public status. He did not sue Roblox, nor is he threatening to, so his lawyer hasn’t even played a part in this.
I guarantee you there will never be a course case regarding this issue within the next billion years of existence.
This is, as previously mentioned, a case of self-victimization. He pretends to be correct and responds in this etiquette simply because he is not entitled to respond legally. In essence, he cannot support his case legally so he acts badly.
I’m pretty sure someone made a reddit post on r/Roblox a while ago saying that the oof sound originally came from a game from 1999 if i’m correct.
The user showed a clip of the game playing the oof sound. Now later on i think they find one of the people who worked on the game was Tommy Tallarico (For the Sound Design), and random people started talking about the oof sound in his Twitter. I think it was something like this.
Do not be fooled by Tom’s social media banter. All his conclusions are inaccurate and unsubstantiated. Keep in mind that he (as well as anyone) is entitled to express whatever they want on social media, regardless of its truth. His contract is his only supportive public evidence, and it does not conclusively support him.
Roblox please don’t remove the oof sound! It is one of the most iconic things about Roblox and even if you do make sounds UGC can you please at least keep the oof sound and make it default for already existing games?
Also something that I really dislike is that Tommy T. is acting like the victim just so that he can get support and make Roblox look bad, despite not having any copyright on the sound at all. He is clearly in the wrong in this situation.
(Don’t take seriously):