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 itâs 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 itâs free or not.
Besides that, thereâs 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 donât go over the 250 APM limit.
If thereâs other tools you need, it would do better to elaborate on what they are.
1 Like
Thereâs an option for models/audio/decals exactly like this:
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 âAllow Copyingâ property in your boombox/etc. You can check that with MarketPlaceService::GetProductInfo.
1 Like
What specifically is the âonly use audio if itâs marked freeâ 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 Iâm really happy with this change because it more explicitly describes what can and canât 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 wouldnât 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 $3,000,000 for the whole library.
1 Like
I messaged the devrelations email a week before the scheduled removal process was about to happen to prevent music that I own the full rights to from being removed, and yet it was still removed. I have also received no response from the devrelations email.
How long will I have to wait before roblox takes care of this? I should be able to use music that I paid a lot of money for.
Forgive me if this has been answered already, I just would like to know that this issue will at least be taken care of eventually and not completely ignored.
6 Likes
So Roblox will automatically make all the audio I took from the catalog marked as not free a 90 second audio track 
or am I reading this wrong. I donât want all my gun effects to turn into action movie soundtracks
4 Likes
R.I.P half my audio library collection over 5 years
11 Likes
Thatâs a lot of wasted R$, 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, thatâs their fault, I donât see why Roblox should have to compensate them for that.
9 Likes
So, Iâm just trying to figure this out. Going back through this whole thing, and reading this line. So, if I find an Audio in the library but itâs marked âNot for Saleâ (itâs not free to take) and I just take the ID Number, and slap it into my game, thatâs against ToS?
1 Like
Pretty sure it is against the terms of service as you are stealing content that is not yours. Although, a staff member would have to confirm this.
Audio can be pretty weird about this kind of thing though, because like for exampleâŚ
Letâs use this song, Monody by TheFatRat for an example. The person who uploaded the song didnât make it âfree to take.â However, they them self, donât âownâ the song either. They have the right to use it, because TheFatRat is a nice guy like that, but the person who uploaded it doesnât own the content full stop.
2 Likes
A few things:
- If someone does not mark an audio as free to take, you have no conclusive evidence that this person allows you to use this sound. Even if it says you can in the description, this is still not a conclusive license. Only once they tick the âAllow Copyingâ box in settings (which makes the sound âfree to takeâ), you can be sure that you can use the sound.
- There is no way to tell with 100% confidence (not 90%, not 99%, 100%) whether something someone uploaded is not theirs to share/have, until the original copyright owner says so. It may be that the person does indeed have a license with the copyright owner to have/redistribute that sound on Roblox, it is impossible to tell for sure because you are not one of these two parties.
That being said, you should employ common sense when browsing for sounds to use in your game. If you think it is somewhat likely that someone uploaded/is redistributing a sound without permission, then you might decide not to use that sound after all, because the risk is that the sound will be removed/replaced which will then also affect the sound played in your game (it might suddenly turn into elevator music or be unplayable entirely).
5 Likes