Now that ROBLOX is really opening up as a powerful game engine (meshes, post effects, long audio length, etc) I want to bring up an issue that is only going to become more prevalent as roblox generates more traffic. (And media attention)
As a programmer/manager I do not create artwork or audio. It is more effective to oursource this! Basically how non-roblox game studios do it. However roblox currently blocks this from a legal standpoint due to the “anyone can use anywhat” policy.
The issue, example:
I purchase a song license for $200 to use in my game.
The owner of uses my soundid in their game.
The owner of said audio sees this and flags the asset as stolen (which, it is).
My soundid gets deleted from the website.
The solution:
Audio can only be used by the user who uploads it.
When uploading audio, have a checkbox option to make the asset “free or just me”
Note: If a user downloads the asset and reuploads it, this is not an issue for the developer who originally uploaded it. Like anywhere else, if you upload stolen content only the stolen content will be deleted. The issue right now is that by SoundID sharing (read: stealing), people can turn your legitimate content into stolen content.
Hmm, it’s a good concept - but I have several questions to how this would be implemented:
What would happen to existing audio? I can imagine a ton of already existing audio (and other asset types) would end up suddenly not working if/when this was added.
Having free audio/other assets used in game, but suddenly the uploader makes it not free. Suddenly the person who used a perfectly fine audio/other asset would no longer be able to use it without uploading it. That’d only cause harm.
As for the protection, I’d say that sharing audio in studio shouldn’t be checked - if I’ve uploaded audio to my account, and want other people to see what I’m working on without uploading the place, I’ll just send them a rbxl file. Surely, it wouldn’t work online then, if they’d try to upload the place.
The issue, example:
I purchase a song license for $200 to use in my game.
That right there is the real issue.
By uploading any asset to ROBLOX you agree with ROBLOX’ terms which include handing over a perpetual license to use the asset without limitations. Your $200 song license DOES NOT allow for this and therefore isn’t licensed/allowed for use on ROBLOX. Even with this asset protection in place you wouldn’t be legally allowed to use the licenses.
Buying a license doesn’t mean much when you don’t follow the license. I contact composers before buying their licenses regarding my intentional use, and often receive a very positive response and permission as it will in our case introduce their music to a large audience. You should too.
If this is to go forward then all assets uploaded should be free by default. If I wanted to play a song in my game that somebody has already uploaded then I should be able to without needing to upload and pay for it myself. If free is default then I’ll be able to use these songs unless otherwise specified by the creator (using the suggested flag)
Maybe though, what we need is a method of having the assets tied to a game, so we could transfer a game to another player or group (a suggestion for another time) and then only the game may use them.
If you have an asset in your inventory (e.g. you took it), and the asset is made not free, you can still use it. In this case, it would cause some issue with existing assets if the owner manually set it back to private, but at that point it’s really your fault for using someone’s asset that was marked as private.
I can’t tell whether you’re ignorant or just don’t understand.
The only thing this feature request suggests is the addition of a new flag that will prevent others from using uploaded audio/assets. As I have explained and you could have read before these licenses do not allow the usage of these tracks on ROBLOX no matter this issue, so this boolean won’t change anything and therefore not solve the issue.
The solution given in OP is not in line with said feature request though as it does not fix the problem. Wsly is just pointing that out by explaining the actual situation and giving us advice as to how we should personally handle the situation for now. No need to mock him for that, Echo.
If that was the case, then I apologize. When I was reading it, it sounded a lot more like “This will never ever be legally possible. Give up permanently and adjust your licenses instead”
PLEASE at least let us hide certain tabs of our inventory to other users. It is SO easy to go into someone’s decals/audio and copy an ID or spoil what they’re working on. It sucks.
The only reason this is an issue is because once somebody locates your ID, they can use it. If they couldn’t steal your ID, who would care if they could find it?
This is a huge issue. So long as this policy is in place, ROBLOX cannot expect professional developers to come from other platforms/engines. It wouldn’t make sense to give up rights like this. It also blocks developers from obtaining licensed audio.
Regarding that^, I’m not going to speculate on ways to do this since my legal knowledge is not up to par with what’s required. Perhaps somebody else who has a better understanding has an idea as to how this could work?
If it was already released in your game, it wouldn’t be an issue, but if you’re working on a secret update and all of a sudden someone finds catapult sounds in your inventory…
At least meaning that ‘we mandatory-ly need at least this BUT I’d also like this’ I think he was refering to if you also upload an audio for your widely popular sequel game ‘Bob The Burger 2 - Main Theme’ can be a dead give away if I uploaded that. SPOILERS SPOILERS, SPOILERS!111
I also agree we should have some protection over our audios. That’s why I went completely cold turkey uploading my audio to ROBLOX. I was fed up of seeing my work in games like ‘SKATE 9999 MILES TO OBBY LOLOL FREDDY’ when it didn’t even fit nor credited. W/o permission/knowledge
Here is what I think is the most reasonable solution:
Require that Audio be free to be used in other people’s games
Make all existing Audio free to take (necessary so existing games won’t break)
From this point forward, whenever a user uploads an Audio he can optionally make his asset free. Once free the audio can never be made not free. This is necessary to prevent the creator from revoking his assets and ruining front page games which rely on them. The creator may not even realize his asset is used when deciding to make it private.
This solves most use cases, but now let’s say you uploaded a sound and want to share it with your friend so he can use it in his games. We also need some sort of asset permissions system which would allow you to grant access to a folder of assets to a specific user/group.
I think the item being owned by said players is enough.
Then if you want to add a safe way of giving models, audio etc besides setting it to free then thats fine by me.
But the system is already there, if you own an item (or its free) then you can use it.
