Roblox has just entered a world of financial pain as it faces a $200 million lawsuit. This was filed by the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) claiming that Roblox was using some songs without getting permission from the artists.
In a report, these songs include those that have been recorded by the likes of Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Ariana Grande, and even the Rolling Stones.
For those not familiar, Roblox is an online platform where users can create games that other users then play. The same users can also play games made by other users. What started as a rather small company back in 2006 has since grown to have earnings of at least $250 million in 2020. In addition, as of July 2020 it had reported more than 150 million active users.
Part of that growth was likely an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. When quarantines limited everyone inside their homes, Roblox became the go-to way for children to communicate with one another. One of the ways that the platform helped is by hosting virtual birthday parties.
Going back to the suit, it was announced by NMPA President David Israelite during the group’s annual meeting. At the meeting, Israelite was reported to have said that Roblox earned “hundreds of millions of dollars” by having users pay them when uploading music. The problem, according to Israelite, was that Roblox didn’t do anything to prevent any repeat infringement or even inform users of the risks involved. The suit revealed that despite having a lot of human moderators to review uploaded audio files, Roblox did nothing to prevent the infringement.
Roblox has since responded to that announcement and said it was both surprised and disappointed with the suit. Roblox claims that it’s a misunderstanding of how they operate. Roblox went on to say that considering their user base, they require everyone to follow the Community Rules. The company added that they have never tolerated copyright infringement and even make use of advanced filtering software to detect any unauthorized material.
What about you? Are you a Roblox user? What do you think about this suit?
