I want to address the current state of Roblox catalog and its creators. As we’ve seen in these recent months, a lot of people have been stealing accessory models left and right and especially abusing the dmca-counter feature when found of their wrongdoings.
There is currently a UGC group called Dreamland UGC that is known for stealing from other legit creators and uploading copyrighted infringement items.
As you can see in these pictures, my item was completely ripped off from me and the people behind this scheme are trying to make a profit off my original work. How was this counter notice even allowed to process in the first place?
Not to mention, the person who submitted this counter-dmca used different names to send me this counter. Did Roblox DMCA agent not look at the flaw and the inaccuracy?
In addition, I’m asking Roblox to better protect its creators against UGC thief, there needs to be a system that prevents people from easily downloading meshes. One of my recommendations is to add unique IDs on meshes get automatically detected if someone tries to reupload the same item.
Thank you for your time.
Expected behavior
Roblox has to reinforce their dmca-counter system. Agents need analyze and make a proper judgement beforehand.
I too just received a counter notice from the same group for a 1:1 stolen item- Not sure why they’re allowed to submit counter notices or even have UGC up for sale since the owner is terminated, weird bug
They stole 2 of my meshes too, and did a 1:1 upload as well…and issued a fraudulent counter notice…
Them doing it to this many people needs to have roblox come in and just nuke the group (and honestly take some sort of greater action against this bad actor on the platform, so roblox should issue them legal notices and ban them from the platform entirely).
Just in: Even the address they provided is falsified. It doesn’t even exist.
What I’m suspecting they’re doing is: They’re trying to counter from what I know, more than 15 well known UGC creators in order to get their holder unbanned from strikes so they can take out the funds and continue profiting off our work. These kind of shady operation groups needs to be shutdown immediately.
Yeah, the thing with counter notices is you essentially can submit one whenever you want and the content is guaranteed to be reinstated. It’s illegal, but because all the PII they give in these counter notices is fake, they feel as if they’ll never receive consequences for it. Quite an interesting situation. CC @apoorcarpenter
Edit: it seems the group holder account is terminated at the moment. Hopefully it remains this way.
If they are sending false counter-notices, how about starting the legal process? Because this is how it works on all platforms. They are claiming they have full permission to use that item, so in this case, the DMCA agent’s obvious action would be to restore the item. The next step is up to you.
Edit: Before restoring the item, if you inform them that a lawsuit has been filed, the item doesn’t even get restored, so yeah.
There’s 4 more groups that do exactly the same thing, possibly owned by the same creator. These groups should be banned after 3 DMCA Claims, however changing the group owner will allow them to get past that.
So glad someone made a forum about this. There are a few other groups, specifically in the anime side of UGC that constantly steal popular anime UGC to make a quick profit.
This is very frustrating (I described a similar problem here https://devforum.roblox.com/t/how-to-deal-with-asset-thieves-request-for-help) because the counter notice often provides false data and how to submit a lawsuit against an anonymous person providing false data in a court on another continent? Many large Roblox groups only sell stolen assets, I can give many examples. DMCA agents, even when provided with clear evidence that something has been stolen (such as my clothing group’s watermark on the copy), still do nothing about it. Once I started researching this topic and tried to find out how to file a lawsuit in a California court - most often you have to have a lawyer, know the legal procedures and it costs a lot of money. It would be a lawsuit against a non-existent person, so no one will ever return the money to you. Now imagine filing a lawsuit against anyone who steals what you create - you must be rich! Other platforms selling 3D models can protect the models so that they cannot be downloaded, it should not be possible to download model meshes and textures, as well as 2D classic clothes, so easily in Roblox.
the reason why it’s so easy to download models is due to the fact that roblox is a game engine and not so much a 3d model marketplace.
because of this, it kind of HAS to be easy for accessories to be easily downloaded by players, or else your accessory would be completely worthless as no one else in-game would be able to see it.
but still, roblox REALLY needs to rework the dmca system they have. i have literally seen fully lifted games get uploaded to the platform and NOT cause their owners to be terminated.
the first dmca should be a termination. no strike system, just “if you stole someone else’s stuff, get off our platform.” and if the dmca was against the group, all their ugc should instantly go off sale, and the buyers should be refunded. the owner should also be terminated.
I agree with reworking the dmca system, but I disagree with the instant termination.
There should be more checks before a dmca goes through, and also not allow people to counter stuff if the creation is 1:1 identical to what they got reported for, and the asset is an item already uploaded on roblox
yeah that’s moreso what i meant of the instant termination
if you 1:1 copied something you should be terminated, since there’s no way it was “just an accident” or something.
I think in some cases that wouldn’t be the case, like if someone gave you the rights to upload an item under your user, but they also uploaded one with same mesh (or texture), they won’t dmca you, or sometimes the dmcas might falsely remove all assets with same mesh or texture (like all black colored items being deleted) so that might be an issue, which is why termination shouldn’t be the case
This shіt should be removed from Roblox platform. They’re just stealing old Roblox event items 1 in 1 (they isn’t even exploiting to get them, they’re just stealing and uploading them as their own ones).
