Protecting Creativity by Understanding Intellectual Property

[TecnoStarlight (Bodysuit Baby)]

Well, there is a huge problem where BIG Games is abusing this system with cube shaped pets, taking down numerous games illegally. Most of the game’s devs can not afford lawyers, which makes the system severely flawed. Is there going to be a better way to handle situations like this?

[C_Corpze (Corpze_TheDeadestOne)]

Tbh, even though this might be infringing, it’s technically free marketing for the IP holder.
I wonder if they’ll actually care to send a DMCA or if they’ll just be like “Nah, let em keep it, it’s free marketing for us”.

Every IP holder, company, etc reacts differently.
I know for a fact that SEGA is often completely fine with fans making and uploading Sonic-related things even without permission.

It’s still a copyright violation but SEGA is pretty chill with it and just let’s fans have it unless it goes like out of hand.
So I wonder how this will go.

[ona2000]

I was considering that too. If companies don’t do anything then the Roblox catalogue will just be a bunch of copied IP’s. The impending doom is looming upon us as we speak. Roblox announced UGC will be going public soon at RDC, even though its in this horrible state. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

[The13thHippie (Vilkata)]

@Roblox

Only the IP rights holder knows what rights they have and who they have given permission to use their creations.

I 100% call this statement out. It is literally impossible for anybody working at Roblox right now to not know that Mario is an IP owned by Nintendo. It is impossible for anybody at Roblox to not know about Ninendo’s infamous and aggressive protection of their IPs, and there is no way in life that they would give permission to some random child or young adult to use their IP in any form of likeness to make money.

Even if I believe Roblox’s claim of them not being able to take down a potentially IP infringing item until the rights holder files a takedown (Something I know Roblox has ignored and gone ahead with in the past, as I have seen it myself, and there is no way a Japanese company would file a DMCA a day after their IP was uploaded), there is no excuse for just allowing copyright violations to slip past moderation to begin with.

There is no way anybody can tell me that whatever team overseers UGC content took one look at those violations as they were being submitted, and said “Yeah, that’s clearly OK and perfectly fits with the company’s Terms & Conditions!”

There is no excuse. This thread would never have had to even be made if moderation of UGC content was much more strict, and dare I say even competent.

@Roblox

To protect the creativity of others, the Roblox Terms of Use states that any content you create must respect the intellectual property rights of others – both on and off our platform.

• This means you should not upload content you do not own or did not get the owner’s permission to use.
• Infringing on someone’s intellectual property is not only a violation of Roblox’s Terms of Use but it’s also a violation of the law.

Maybe you should have your own employees read that as well, because they have dropped the ball HARD on this, to embarrassing extremes.

Am I being harsh and aggressive with this comment? Yes. But only because the soft approach has been proven not to work before, with the company not giving the time of day to anything less than an in-your-face aggressive attitude.

It seems Roblox didn’t learn when they were sued by The National Music Publishers’ Association. I won’t be surprised if Nintendo decided to go that route as well.

To make this post clear, I am not demanding Roblox remove the offending items, even though I know they could, as the items violate Roblox’s own T&C on copyrighted content being uploaded, which would warrant a removal even if the IP holders didn’t contact them.

What I am advocating for is more competence in UGC moderation. It’s clear that Mario’s outright likeness should never have been allowed, and Roblox, by all rights, could and should have rejected it being uploaded, but they did not.

[Doomcolp (dxxmed)]

How did these get thru?? Jeez if this is getting thru then there’s no way public UGC is gonna go good.

First the fake limiteds, fake headless, fake giftboxes, UGC realistic heads, and now copyrighted items… wow.

[The13thHippie (Vilkata)]

@Roblox

Roblox-created items and intellectual property

What we shared above equally applies to items that we created as well. We’ve found that the majority of complaints we see about copies of Roblox-created items do not in fact infringe on our IP. We do enforce our own rights when items infringe on our IP, but IP protections do not necessarily extend to every idea presented in a work, but rather the original and unique elements of a work.

For example, Roblox may publish a virtual item that’s a replica of an ordinary, common item in the real world where countless versions (both physical and digital) already exist from many different makers. This might be an unbranded baseball cap or an orange traffic cone . With so few distinguishing elements of the Roblox-created item, even items that appear similar to our creations may not infringe on our IP rights.

This bit hints at a grey area in regards to uploading items similar to Roblox ones, provided the design is a common item and cannot be copyrighted. But what about accessories people have uploaded that are a copy of Roblox’s Redcliff IP?

Things like the following outright use either Redcliff’s name, design, or both.

And if they aren’t allowed, I ask how and why they got past UGC moderation to begin with. At the very least, two things would be nice:

1. An official, and public, statement from Roblox that’s available to all users that violating copyright is both against Roblox’s Terms & Conditions, and is illegal.

2. A notice before any UGCer uploads an item, asking them if the item they are attempting to create violates copyright, and links them to this thread.

Users seem to think that there are no consequences to copyright violations, and that Roblox’s own IPs are free to use, something that isn’t true, and that should seriously be cleared up.

[Bry10022]

@Roblox

the infringing creator will lose any manufacturing payment and Robux earned from the item’s sales.

Suppose they already spent the Robux made from the item, then does their balance become negative?