It’s a separate license. They collaborate with the creator/owner of the assets/avatar and form a licensing agreement with them.
How would you be able to confirm who owns the IP?
For example, let’s say I make an asset. A gun. Someone somehow gets the gun, and uses it in their game. How would you confirm that I own the IP and that the other person stole it?
Creation dates are key
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If you want to read it yourself, check out section 6(B)(3) of the Roblox Terms of Use.
I've quoted it here for you.
(3) Ownership of UGC and License Grant to Roblox. For any UGC that you have ever Provided or that you will Provide (whether created solely by you or together with others) (a) between you and us or you and users, you retain all copyrights that you may hold in the UGC, and (b) in consideration of using the Service and the potential to earn Robux as discussed in the Robux section, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free right and license (with the right to sublicense to any person or entity, whether a user of the Service or not) to host, store, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform (including by means of digital audio transmissions and on a through-to-the-audience basis), reproduce (including in timed synchronization to visual images), modify, create derivative works of, distribute and to use in any way the UGC that you Provide, in whole or in part, including modifications and derivative works, in any media or formats (tangible or intangible) and through any media, items or channels (online, offline, or others, now known or hereafter developed), including for publicity and marketing purposes (except that you are not granting us any license to make new or derivative video games using your UGC).
(a) For the avoidance of doubt, the rights granted in this Section 6(B)(3) include, but are not limited to, the right to reproduce sound recordings (and make mechanical reproductions of the musical works embodied in such sound recordings) and publicly perform and communicate to the public sound recordings (and the musical works embodied therein), all on a royalty-free basis. This means that you are granting Roblox rights to use your UGC as contemplated by this Section 6(B)(3) without the obligation to pay royalties to any third party, including, without limitation, a sound recording copyright owner (e.g., a record label), a musical work copyright owner (e.g., a music publisher), a performing rights organization (e.g., ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc.) (a “PRO”), a sound recording PRO (e.g., SoundExchange), any unions or guilds, and engineers, producers or other royalty participants involved in the creation of UGC.
(b) Regarding the publicity and marketing rights, this allows us to provide a license to a TV show, movie, book, annual, encyclopedia or anthology, website, social media, online or print magazine or newspaper, or other commercial, non-commercial or educational purpose to use your UGC and associated username in ways that we think will help publicize or market the Services, any part of the Services, any UGC on the Services and tangible items off the Services. Other than the potential to earn Robux, we shall not be obligated to provide to you any compensation, attribution, or other payments for any reasons, including for exploitation of the license discussed immediately above, whether in relation to the Service or otherwise, nor are we obligated to exploit this license. BY ACCEPTING THESE TERMS AND CONTINUING TO USE THE SERVICE, YOU AGREE THAT THIS LICENSE APPLIES TO ANY UGC YOU PROVIDED TO US AT ANY TIME (FROM YOUR FIRST USE OF THE SERVICE, WHICH MAY PREDATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS VERSION OF THE TERMS).
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And if the gun isn’t a model, but rather a bunch of parts in a game? You can’t judge when the gun was created by the place’s creation date.
Yeahhhhh idk how that would work then
Revert the game to an older version and show that its there
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With this in mind, is it completely okay to file DMCA takedowns against people who have stolen models or scripts from my game? I’ve always thought that would be the proper and legal way to take down copiers, as they are violating my copyright.
If I were to do this, for example, is there any chance that Roblox would also remove my own game or assets – either on accident or just because it’s easier for them?
With Roblox gaining more and more high-quality games, sending a DMCA takedown to copiers makes more and more sense.
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They’re using your copyrighted work without permission, so you’re absolutely able to file a DMCA against them. If you want to make sure Roblox doesn’t remove your own content, you should probably specify your username with instructions not to remove your own.
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I’m not sure what the specifics of how Roblox handles DMCA requests are. There was a user who recently posted on Twitter that they filed a DMCA request against someone using a stolen copy of their clothing, and only the copy was taken down. We have had events for LEGO/etc in the past as well, even though they’ve requested their content be removed from the site. INAL, and I don’t work for the Legal team, but it seems you can request a takedown for stolen copies only, and not your own content.
It is possible for your asset to be removed on accident. Accidents happen, and there’s a forum thread about it happening to a devforum member somewhere, but Roblox would probably be pretty quick to reconcile issues like these.
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Thanks for the response; it certainly makes things clearer. I especially like the example of a user who has used the DMCA takedown system on Roblox before – that was going to be what I asked about next if you hadn’t provided any examples.
So I’m going to implement voice lines (taunts) in my game.
What if I use sounds from other media?
Example: DIO’s “WRYYYY” (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
Would that be alright? I mean it’s a short clip.
No. Against the rules.
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@EchoReaper That actually sounds like fair use, since it’s a nod/acknowledgement to the game itself rather than a blatant theft. Additionally, it’s an insignificant component of the original game, which is also in your favor. If you were ripping entire segments of conversation, then that would be copyright infringement.
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It’s sort of a gray area. The developers still own the full rights to the IP and they can take it down as they please. I’ve seen Nintendo take down mods for Super Mario 64 even if the mods aren’t making any profits. It ultimately just comes down to whether or not they want to.
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It is somewhat of a grey area, and developers can definitely choose to take it to court, but according to this court decision (see the bottom of page 15 and top of page 16, or see picture below) a large portion of a fair use decision comes down to how much of the original work is used, as well as if it can act as a market substitute.
“[Fair use is] the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.”
Using ripped assets from another game in your own published game would not be covered by fair use.
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The problem with dawgra’s example is that the audio is the cry was ripped from a TV stream / DVD / pirated video file. If it was created by someone else re-enacting the sound or recreated from scratch, then fair use might apply, but fair use isn’t applicable if content is already illegal. See this article for more information.
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I’m confused. Does this mean I can’t create anime based games anymore? Such as Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, etc?
Any unoriginal content (such as the names themselves) could cause you trouble.
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