Roblox Terms of Use Update

Hey Developers,

We have updated our Roblox Terms of Use. We are adding language to comply with SESTA, the new law regarding safety issues, including recruiting, enticing, advertising, and soliciting any person to perform a commercial sexual act. We are also providing users and developers more clarity and information about some existing provisions. There has been no change to the actual meaning of these provisions. Instead, we are giving examples and explanations to help people better understand their meaning.

The updated sections include:

  • Online Safety, and reporting advertisements or solicitations for commercial sexual acts;
  • Developer Groups, and how Roblox will communicate and interact with the Group and Group Owner; and
  • Ownership of User-Generated Content (“UGC”), and how users and developers can better protect the content they create.
  • As part of these updates, we have also updated the permissions page when uploading assets. The default behavior is the same but the checkbox now remains unchecked when you want the asset to be private.

For more information, please review our full Roblox Terms of Use, found here: https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004647846-Roblox-Terms-of-Use.

Thanks,
Developer Relations Team

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Will there be another one of those popups that makes you agree to the terms of use before doing anything on the site?

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Grooming and other predatory behavior;

Glad this is finally and explicitly banned. I know of a lot of groups and users that groom kids off site. Really sickens me. Hoping I can at least get their Robux removed by getting termed.

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I went through and found the paragraphs/sections that were added. Most of the rest of the page is the same.

Added:
5. A. (3) No Refunds. As discussed elsewhere in these Terms, there may be situations where games, avatar items, or other content may be removed from the Service (due to violations of these Terms or for other reasons). We will have no liability for any losses you may incur as a result, and will not be liable to refund any Robux or other funds you spent in or for that game or content.

6. B. (2)
This was mostly re-written. It added details about how Roblox can decide a new group owner if the old one is terminated, and only the owner is in charge, so Roblox isn’t responsible for enforcing agreements between group devs and the group owner.

Old text

Groups. Through the Service, you may have the opportunity to join a Group (as defined below). The individual or entity controlling or owning the email address is the owner of the Group (the “Owner”). The Owner may choose (in that person’s sole discretion) to make a different person the new Owner (in such case the new owner shall be considered the Owner). If the Owner’s account is terminated pursuant to these Terms, Roblox will in its sole business judgment determine who is the rightful person to be made the new Owner of the Group (and that user shall be considered the Owner). As between Roblox and you, the owner of the Group will be deemed to have all rights (including copyrights and rights to Robux spent on the Group’s Dev Game Item Services or the Group’s Dev Avatar Item Services) and responsibility for any UGC Provided by the Group through the Services (including the responsibility of getting appropriate rights from other Group members). As such any reference to “you” in this Section 6 shall, in the case of a Group, only mean the Owner. If the Group members want to have a separate agreement regarding rights to UGC created by individual members or to Robux earned by the Group or any other matter, we shall not be part of that separate agreement. A “Group” exists where users or Devs have joined together to register as a group, via a single email address, on the Service in order to release a game or content via the Service. For corporate Accounts, the company (or other legal entity) named on the Account is considered to be a Group.

New text

Groups. Through the Service, you may have the opportunity to join a Group (as defined below). The individual or entity controlling or owning the email address for a Group will be deemed the owner of the Group for all purposes (the “Owner”). The Owner may choose (in that person’s sole discretion) to make a different person the new Owner (in such case the new owner shall be considered the Owner). If the Owner’s account is terminated pursuant to these Terms, Roblox may, in its sole business judgment, determine who is the rightful person to be made the new Owner of the Group (and that user shall be considered the Owner); provided, however, that nothing will obligate Roblox to designate a new Owner if Roblox in its sole business judgment determines to terminate a Group. By participating in a Group, you hereby grant the Owner of the Group, as such Owner may change over time, the sole and exclusive authority to act on your behalf to authorize Roblox to use any UGC created by the Group as set forth in these Terms or pursuant to any other agreement entered into between the Owner and Roblox. An Owner and the members of a Group may separately agree upon how the Owner may exercise the authority granted to such Owner in these Terms or how the members of a Group may allocate amongst themselves any payments that may be made to the Owner for any activities undertaken or UGC created by the Group, but in any event Roblox will make any payments due for any activities undertaken or UGC created by the Group solely to the Owner of the Group. You hereby waive any claims that you may have against Roblox for any payments made to an Owner by Roblox, and you agree to seek recovery of any payments due you solely from the Owner of any Group of which you are a member. Except as may be provided at law, any duty of accounting between an Owner of a Group and members of such Group will arise solely pursuant to a written agreement among the Owner of a Group and its members, and Roblox will not be bound by any agreement among the Owner and members. Any reference to “you” in this Section 6 shall, in the case of a Group, only mean the Owner. A “Group” exists where users or Devs have joined together to register as a group, via a single email address, on the Service in order to release a game or content via the Service. For corporate Accounts, the company (or other legal entity) named on the Account is considered to be a Group.


6. B. (3) Added:
When using the Service, you may be prompted to grant other Roblox users the right to use your UGC. If you agree to grant this right, other users may use your UGC to create their own games and other UGC on the Service, and you will not be entitled to any revenue that those other users earn, even if they use your UGC.

Added:
7. B. Online Safety. Roblox cares about the safety of our users. If you see any content or materials (including Third Party Materials) on the Service that appears to recruit, entice, advertise, or solicit any person to perform a commercial sexual act, please use the Contact Us form and select the User Safety Concern help category to immediately report the user and situation.

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By participating in a Group, you hereby grant the Owner of the Group, as such Owner may change over time, the sole and exclusive authority to act on your behalf to authorize Roblox to use any UGC created by the Group as set forth in these Terms or pursuant to any other agreement entered into between the Owner and Roblox.

RIP my grounds for a lawsuit.
I would definitely advise people make sure they have a clear legal understanding and agreement before working on a group project.

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In addition to this, I always make sure my assets are protected within the scripts. While this may be more difficult/impossible to do with people who create 3D objects or builds, at least scripting property can be protected at an individual developer level. Unfortunately, there is no safeguard for meshes or full builds against shifty owners, but that is why it is important to understand the law regarding these sorts of things.

Edit: I’m sorry that your assets were ripped, that’s really no fun.

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You were going to sue someone for giving Roblox permission to use your UGC?

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Uh, this has always been explicitly banned,

This is just a legal wording clarification.

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We EU members have yet to receive an update on ROBLOX’s compliance to the upcoming GPDR if ROBLOX does in deed comply to the standards it would be nice to know/get an update at most in a few weeks time.

…The GDPR was finally approved by the EU Parliament on 14 April 2016. Enforcement date: 25 May 2018 - at which time those organizations in non-compliance may face heavy fines…

Yes, this will affect ROBLOX due to ROBLOX storing important tax information and private information of EU citizens so GPDR compliance is important.

The GDPR not only applies to organisations located within the EU but it will also apply to organisations located outside of the EU if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behaviour of, EU data subjects. It applies to all companies processing and holding the personal data of data subjects residing in the European Union, regardless of the company’s location.

This section is also handy because GPDR now states that long legal jumbly like terms and conditions no longer suffice, nice and clear average Joe readable terms for data usage/processing/storage is now needed. Facebook did a new data checkup window as a little example.

The conditions for consent have been strengthened, as companies will no longer be able to utilise long illegible terms and conditions full of legalese, as the request for consent must be given in an intelligible and easily accessible form, with the purpose for data processing attached to that consent - meaning it must be unambiguous. (See more on website)

It’s also important that emails are sent regarding any changes to privacy policy and usage as a reflection to the GPDR

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What exactly do you expect to receive from Roblox? Seems like internal regulations; things that don’t necessarily have any known impact to the users?

Exactly, but there’s nothing that they need to “update you” about. This is entirely internal, and their compliance is probably already in effect.

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Can this eventually be regarded as a measure to attempt to take action on those pesky copiers?!

Also, “grant the right” can be misunderstood as granting the copyrights of the work, which means “yes, you can use and abuse that as if you made that all by yourself and I didn’t even open Studio for it”. I’d use “grant permission” or “grant a license”, as it is more clear.

It’s an issue as we technically are developers using the tools and hosting our games on Roblox’s platforms. If they aren’t GDPR compliant then neither are our games. Not sure if it’ll have much effect if this happens, however it’s better to get some clarification if we need to investigate if this affects developers.