What are ROBLOX's copyright Rules?

Hello,

I am recreating the City of Philadelphia on ROBLOX. I am currently creating the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, it is full of many brand-name stadiums such as the Wells Fargo Center, and Lincoln Financial Field. These are copyrighted names owned by real-life corporations. Additionally, I want to implement some sort of usability into these stadiums. This means introducing Philadelphia-style teams like the NFL’s Eagles, NHL’s Flyers, and NBA’s 76’ers.

My question is simple, should I introduce parody names for every corporation I wish to include to avoid a copyright claim, or do you think they’re free to use since it is a recreational game. Eventually I will add developer products to ‘profit’ off the game. What is ROBLOX’s stance on this? There are plenty of games and groups modeled after real-life corporations and plenty of shirts on sale that use copyrighted branding.

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You should make a parody of the brand logos because the moment Roblox detects the copyright (given that the brand logo is protected by copyright), your account will be moderated. As far as I know, you will not be banned on the first moderation strike, you will be prompted to delete the copyright striken image.

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I would avoid using their names and actual logos as the company may not want their brand to be used like that. You could email each company to check it’s okay, or consult their public brand guidelines if available. Most guidelines are fairly flexible as long as you don’t make out that you’re affiliated with or act on behalf of that company.

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Thank you!

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I will consider reaching out to a few to see if they’d like to be represented!

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To be just on the safe side I wouldn’t put the copyrighted names in. Here is a link to the Roblox rules about copyright: https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/206388086-Can-I-Use-Copyrighted-Material-on-Roblox-

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Essentially Roblox’s stance on Copyright is that they assume you own everything you post and use until their told otherwise. Even though it should be obvious that the Gatorade logo is a trademark and doubtful anyone on Roblox has express permission they don’t go out of the way to take it down until Gatorade sends a DMCA. Starbucks sent one a long time ago, for example, and now any logos that are too close to Starbucks (or are exactly Starbucks) get taken down during the moderation process.

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You should probably avoid using real names unless you want to go through the branding guidelines of the companies you want to use and figure out what to do and not to do.

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I think you should not put things specifically official I mean do not put names that have copyright notice or names that are the same. You have to edit them as well as ask permission if you want to use the official ones.
In response to your question, Yes. Put some names that are not the same with the original

A example:
If you know what GTA San Andreas is, the Industry used a parody name (Not oficial) of the Area 51 as Area 69

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Probably just make parody names to be safe

I live in that area so this project has me pretty stoked

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Stuff like this would apply more under trademark law rather than copyright law.

If you want, you could parody the trademarks, placing the uses of those marks under fair use, although I would rather attach a disclaimer to the mark that states that “This product is in no way sponsored, approved, or authorized by [company name], and does not intend to bring malice upon the organization and its mark.” This way, you could keep the decal of the mark on the website, keeping the immersion, and stay safe from any legal troubles.

If you really want to know about Roblox’s stance on copyright and trademark law, just leave a book on your desk to use as reference, that way you don’t have to worry about any action taken against you.

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You can’t use any of the brands or anything. Not unless you want to contact every copyright holder.

There’s some information on copyright over at Roblox Support.

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Quick question doesn’t all games are default copyrighted on Roblox when they are uploaded the platform or how does that work? Because honestly I am unsure if they do or not.

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