Online gaming company Roblox has been hit with a lawsuit for, allegedly, illegally streaming copyrighted music. The kid-friendly gaming platform has insane reach, with 42 million daily users — and hosts a massive library of music uploaded by users to incorporate into games.
The National Music Publishers’ Association is reportedly seeking a minimum of $200 million in damages from Roblox for its use of songs from various artists without proper compensation. Popular music acts including deadmau5, Ariana Grande, Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran and the Rolling Stones are mentioned.
The suit represents a number of publisher plaintiffs including ABKCO Music & Records, Big Machine Records, Concord Music Group with Pulse Music Group, Downtown Music Publishing, Hipgnosis, Kobalt Music Group, MPL Music Publishing, Peermusic, Reservoir Media Management, Spirit Music Group and UMPG.
The NMPA’s lawsuit aims to “ensure songwriters are fully paid for their works on the platform and that Roblox takes seriously its obligations to those who have made its service so popular and profitable.”
On Thursday, Roblox issued a statement saying the company is working “vigorously” to defend itself and “achieve a fair resolution,” further asserting the lawsuit “represents a fundamental misunderstanding” of how the platform works.
Amazon-owned streaming service Twitch may also be in trouble, as NMPA president/CEO David Israelite spoke on an “intensive enforcement program to ID and remove unlicensed songs from [Twitch].”
Sources: Variety, Billboard
