Upcoming Music Changes and Copyright Related Action

Yeah, but there was the widespread user mesh purge in 2010. People were using an exploit to import files ripped from Halo, Left 4 Dead, Portal, etc. The Admins removed all of those meshes. Granted, those were from an exploit. So the mere existence of MeshParts is probably proof that ROBLOX isn’t going to crack down on plagiarism in this instance. I’m just playing it safe.

1 Like

You should never steal the work of others regardless of Roblox banning it or not.

4 Likes

I realize that I’m late to the party here, but I’ve spent a lot of time reading through the post and replies and am still unclear about what changes will have to be made to radio/boombox gamepasses. Before you shoot me down for repeating this question, I’m having trouble finding non-contradictory or clear answers.

For example, I have a radio gamepass in my game that doesn’t include audio directly uploaded to my game, but rather lets the user search the roblox audio library and save songs from it. Nowhere in my game do I have these audio tracks uploaded.

With this upcoming change, will I only be allowed to return 250 song results when searching the library? With the new automated flagging system in place, can I assume that every song playable from the roblox library is licensed (even if the song title is advertising itself to be a copyrighted song)? If I let players directly add a song with an audio ID, will I have to limit their selection to 250 IDs?

Definitely understand the change being made here, just trying to fully understand how it will be rolled out.

5 Likes

I think I can answer most of your questions but @EchoReaper will likely correct me if I get something wrong.

You can use any audios from the roblox catalog with radio gamepasses AS LONG AS they are not APM Music audios uploaded by Roblox - in this case, you will either need to block these audios completely, or have a select list of 250 which you allow song ids from. As far as I can tell from previous posts you’re not responsible if someone else uploads an unlicensed audio that you use in your game, they are.

2 Likes

Great, thank you

1 Like

Small rectification on what @SteadyOn is saying: please also make sure not to allow your players to play audio that is not marked as Free in the catalog. You can check this with MarketplaceService::GetProductInfo. (If you need any more clarification, you can look through my responses on this thread, they are vetted for correctness.)

4 Likes

does this mean we have to prevent copyrighted music playing in radio gamepasses?

1 Like

Audio assets flagged for copyright violations will not play in game - I believe it’s down to Roblox to block these assets, not the developer.

1 Like

It is up to the developer because an audio being uploaded to Roblox does not mean you have the rights to use it. Players upload their own copyrighted audios, so before playing audio from a radio you must check if it’s free or not.

Besides that, there’s the APM music limits you need to look out for too.

3 Likes

Doing this check would mean the user would only be able to play APM tracks, which in most cases, is not what is wanted.

Plenty of copyright-free tracks in the marketplace.

In order for this to be a feasible answer to his question, Roblox would need to provide further tools to allow audio asset uploaders to set the usage rights on their own audio, for example, like the public and private setting on games.

All you need to do is call GetProductInfo on the id of the audio, and check if it is public domain (aka free to take). Any audio that is free to take is an audio you can use, as long as you don’t go over the 250 APM limit.

If there’s other tools you need, it would do better to elaborate on what they are.

1 Like

There’s an option for models/audio/decals exactly like this:
image

This used to be the uncopylocked property before they repurposed it. You may only use audio in your game from other developers if that audio has been marked as free to take in the catalog or you have an explicit license from that developer to use the audio. So you need to respect this “Allow Copying” property in your boombox/etc. You can check that with MarketPlaceService::GetProductInfo.

1 Like

What specifically is the “only use audio if it’s marked free” policy? Does it apply only to radio gamepasses or is it every sound?

In several communities I am in, people share sounds they have uploaded quite readily even though the sounds are not marked free, because there is (has been?) no functional difference between being free and not being free. These sounds are up to as old as the introduction of the sound uploading feature, so it would be quite tedious to find them all and mark them as free.

EDIT: In addition, some of the sounds I have uploaded (and others have uploaded, used with permission) are included in endorsed models, but they are not marked free. One of the users I use audio from has quit roblox entirely. What will happen to people who use the endorsed models with non-free sounds?

2 Likes

You can only use audio in your game that is properly licensed. That either means (1) you uploaded it yourself and made it yourself / have a license from the creator, or it means that (2) you use a free-to-take sound from the catalog, or it means that (3) you use a non-free sound on the catalog but you have an explicit license from the uploader to use it. So no, it does not just apply to radio game passes.

I understand that it is inconvenient, but they had to make the distinction between what is usable and what is not without license somehow without accidentally wrongly marking unusable assets as usable. Overall I’m really happy with this change because it more explicitly describes what can and can’t be used in games.

Of course there will be people that break the rules anyway, this is not really avoidable without making audio unplayable on the website / games not owned by the uploader, but this would inconvenience developers on the short-term and is quite a harsh change to make (instantly all wrongly used audio would stop working, and also if you have a license to use an asset uploaded by someone else, you wouldn’t be able to play that anymore).

Could you bring up the specific models to developer relations? Thanks for pointing that out.

1 Like

I finally heard back about this from Monstercat. Their average fee is $1,500 per track, so it is possible, but it is too expensive for me to consider. Also, I doubt Roblox will be getting Monstercat licences at this point, because that would be over $3,000,000 for the whole library.

1 Like

I messaged the devrelations email a week before the scheduled removal process was about to happen to prevent music that I own the full rights to from being removed, and yet it was still removed. I have also received no response from the devrelations email.

How long will I have to wait before roblox takes care of this? I should be able to use music that I paid a lot of money for.

Forgive me if this has been answered already, I just would like to know that this issue will at least be taken care of eventually and not completely ignored.

6 Likes

So Roblox will automatically make all the audio I took from the catalog marked as not free a 90 second audio track :thinking: or am I reading this wrong. I don’t want all my gun effects to turn into action movie soundtracks

4 Likes

R.I.P half my audio library collection over 5 years

11 Likes

That’s a lot of wasted R$, refunds should be issued.

5 Likes

I disagree, there are potentially hundreds of millions of robux that have been spent on these removed audios, adding this currency back into the economy would likely cost Roblox hundreds of thousands of dollars in devex. If a user uploaded a copyrighted audio, that’s their fault, I don’t see why Roblox should have to compensate them for that.

9 Likes