Roblox use of asset store content

This one has me wondering and I need clarification if this is an okay practice. Someone within Roblox is buying art assets from the Unity Asset Store and they are being put into the Roblox catalog as official assets created by us (Roblox) for sale. Is this kind of reselling legit? I went through the EULA or terms of use for the Asset Store and it appears to prohibit this, except for being permitted under the EULA.

"Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Unity and except as permitted under the Unity-EULA, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell any Asset that you have licensed from the Unity Asset Store for any purpose."

EDIT: Turns out, yes there is an agreement to use the Asset Store assets in our catalog. Everyone was not made aware of this. So no licensing violations, however I can see how it could be seen as "asset flipping".

 

Definitely not okay. If you're in a position to, get on fixing this right away because otherwise it could get messy if anyone catches on.

 

I've already posted it (my questioning if anyone is aware of this) internally to our Trello board, low level managers can see the post I've put up. I'm waiting for their response back on this.

It personally bothers me. I've been an Asset Store seller for a long time and very loyal to Unity. This to me feels like someone buying up my assets from here on the Unity Asset Store and then reselling them for far cheaper on their own web store.

 

syntystudios - Would be familiar with these assets currently for sale in the Roblox catalog.

https://www.roblox.com/bundles/352/Bionic-Ninja
https://www.roblox.com/bundles/405/Skeleton-Knight
https://www.roblox.com/bundles/395/Knight-of-Strength
https://www.roblox.com/bundles/394/Simple-Robo
https://www.roblox.com/bundles/393/Warchief-Mucklug

These are officially created and deployed by Roblox. That means someone within Roblox is buying these art assets on the Asset Store and then putting them for sale in the catalog. I don't think this falls back on Roblox, but it may for the individual who is doing this.

 

@JamesArndt
Have you checked if those asset developer(s) are not working for Roblox? They might just be selling in multiple markets.

 

They are selling in multiple markets, including their own market place:
https://syntystore.com/

As for the licence:
https://syntystore.com/pages/refund-policy

 

I highly doubt this is selling in multiple markets. These assets I've listed are created internally by us (when you see Roblox as the seller on our web store). This means one of our artists internally delivered these assets to Roblox for the catalog. When you see the items for sale from other users those are items done by 3rd party developers...which would be the scenario you describe. However in our employment/contract agreement with Roblox is specifically does NOT allow the selling in multiple markets of assets we provide Roblox. It's a no-compete thing and it states the assets we provide Roblox must not be sold elsewhere via an other 3rd party.

The items we upload to the Roblox catalog are generally original creations. However we have relationships with a bunch of large IPs and companies, so you'll see Marvel tie-ins etc. It's possible that Synty Studios is commissioning us to create their assets for the Roblox platform, but then those assets would be for-sale under the Synty Studios name and those sales would go to them. All of these assets are sold from Roblox and no other vendor so this doesn't make sense to me.

 

As interesting as this is, I think that rather than post here, you should contact the Synty Studios team and let them know this is happening. It could be they have a deal with Roblox or it could be as you say, that someone is scamming the company and the asset developers and getting paid for making assets they did not actually make. Sadly, it happens.

I am sure they have an email/support area connected to their Asset Store pages, so contact them. Do not be shy. Either way, they will appreciate that you care enough to let them know. Obviously, this bothers you and it would bother me too. Posting it here gets it out there, but maybe it will not get to the person who need to know.

 

I also hope that, before doing anything on a public forum, it was raised privately internally? Raising things like this in a publicly visible way is a big, heavy handed move.

That aside, big thumbs up for doing something rather than ignoring it.

 

Locking per op's request.

From personal experience (not my own, my coworkers), publicly challenging your own company in a public space, almost never provides the expect results, and can go badly. I don't know, and not suggesting this is the case in this thread, but... I would refrain from doing this.

 

Unlocking due to op request again.

As a reminder for all, the edit feature is make minor corrections, not remove or rewrite history. Doing so will get you a thread ban, excessive use will you a temp ban. Please the website terms if you are still confused on this issue.

 

At least I have an option to speak now. They are not my employer, my employer is NASA. Roblox is a side gig of occasional contract work I do solely because my kids all love the game. I don't need the money to be honest. I always want to speak up if I see something that looks unethical taking place, especially if it's something that infringes the IP of the "little guy", not some large corporation. I will always speak up both internally and publicly on situations that I think are morally or ethically wrong. I don't agree that hiding this kind of thing is the best course of action. We find in today's world unethical actions are brought into public light and folks are held accountable. I believe it's wrong to publicly shame an individual, or shame an individual without proof or being sure of the situation, but this is not the case here. I don't want to see the platform spoiled by the actions of a single individual so I will bring to light anything that looks questionable. This includes calling it out something fishy publicly, to protect Roblox themselves...not just talk disparagingly about someone you work with.

As @angrypenguin had mentioned earlier, this was brought up internally several days prior, to make sure Roblox was aware this was happening. No one was sure what was going on within the sphere I worked in, so in essence I was hoping to help them "track down" the offending party. As I told the team internally this makes Roblox look unprofessional and we needed to find out what was going on. I still find this something that destroys the public's opinion of the value of our work. The assets were very public on both stores, so there was point in hiding any of it.

I would do this any time in the future something like this needs to be talked about. I'm sure after realizing you guys will not delete threads per request any longer I may word my posts slightly differently, but I will speak up to the public about issues in our industry and companies doing strange things.

 

How is the asset sold? As a DLC for the game? If the source model files are not exposed I think its perfectly ok todo this? I dont see a difference in that from using premade assets in any game

 

Indeed, in fact their license completely allows this.

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Also I worked for NASA for just under 5 years developing games. I'm glad I did (I was proud of our work), but would never, ever do so again.

 

Yes that was one of my big problems with this. It is not only DLC but modifiable content in a sandbox editor. So yes the source model files are there for the user. Roblox is not so much a "game" as a platform for selling things. The gaming is a social aspect of it really and its meant to show off what you've bought. I think the biggest issue I had or rather have with this has nothing to do with licenses or violations. They are legally allowed to do this. What makes it a major is issue to me is the asset flipping aspect of it. There are no changes to the source artwork as well, so it's a one to one copy on another platform. I had stated prior that asset flips give any platform a bad reputation (as Jim Sterling made the public aware of). I want Roblox to be an original platform and better than simply copy pasting artwork from other web sites. I want the folks who work in there as artists to be respected for their original creations. I'm simply not a fan at all of buying content from a store and using it directly as it is without giving it a bit of a unique look or at least making it look slightly different than the original. I am interested in hearing what others thing of the phenomena of "Asset Flipping". It has now become synonymous with Unity and I can't see how that's a positive thing. If one doesn't know the "behind the scenes" legal terms and licensing stuff it simply appears to be plagiarism to the average gamer. Worse it makes the platform or game look "low effort".

@zombiegorilla No idea why your experience was not good, but mine is awesome. I get paid extremely well, I don't have to leave my living room to do the work (telecommute), my hours are completely flexible and the work is not overly complicated...it's also very creative, the folks I work with are amazing people and very good managers. In fact I'd say they allow a very large area for me to self manage my work and aspects of a project. The best part is we use Unity as one of our tools for web games and the team allows a wide range of creative freedom.

 

Yeah I don't think that it's ok to resell other's assets for a lower price but what if I used assets that I bought for my own use on Roblox?

 

I know this is an old thread, but this is a continuing misunderstanding, and I would just like to clarify. The Unity Asset Store states that you are not to "reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell any asset that you have licensed from the Unity Asset Store for any purpose". This is for the asset file itself, on Roblox they are selling the right to use this asset for your character, not the actual asset itself. They in no way give you the asset file to download, any method in retrieving the source file is against Roblox's terms of use, for which requires some exploitation of the resource system. The same case occurs for any game. Any game's assets can be stolen/downloaded because anything sent to the client the client can gain access of. As long as they don't provide the direct asset file in exchange for money, it is fine. There is nothing wrong here.

 

That's not what asset store license says.
https://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms

Because roblox is, as far as I know, a game kit software, making an asset available on it can fall under sublicensing, and is definitely in "you should definitely make sure it is okay with your lawyer" territory.

 

At the time at which they would have agreed to the agreement that was what it would have stated. I wouldn't so much call the catalogue, however, part of the game development software as it has no integration into the studio side and doesn't allow developers to openly use that asset in their game. Although, even if it did, because all Roblox games become the property of Roblox (excluding the intellectual property within), you could say that Roblox holds one single license, which applies to all of the games. I must confess it is a very complicated matter and could probably be argued either way.

 

Which is why I said it is something you shouldn't do without consulting with a lawyer first.

 

If this interpretation is correct, well that creates an even more obvious problem. Did you make sure Roblox got their own license to the original asset? Assuming no, then you've sublicensed the asset to Roblox in violation of the asset store terms. Big no no, and that doesn't even get into other users getting access to the asset, just the fact it was handed over to Roblox in the first place becomes a problem. As already stated, this is lawyer territory.