The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has recently sued a renowned virtual gaming platform known as Roblox in the US. It is seeking $200 million as damages. It alleged that Roblox allowed its users to upload music from famous artists without paying them any licensing fee. The NMPA decided to file this suit on behalf of several major music publishers. It accused the popular kid-focused platform in its suit of hosting a shared library of copyrighted but unlicensed songs from several artists including Ariana Grande and Imagine Dragons.
However, the lawsuit alleged Roblox of actively preying on its impressionable user base and further, their desire for popular music, last but not the least of teaching children that pirating music is all normal which is perfectly acceptable. The lawsuit is also seeking a court order directing Roblox to crack down on piracy policies. Roblox was launched in the year 2006. It has been a runaway hit during the ongoing pandemic by giving socially distanced kids a social platform to gather online and have some fun.
The company said in a statement posted on its website, “We are surprised and disappointed by this lawsuit which represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how our platform operates and will defend our brand Roblox vigorously as we work to achieve a fair resolution”. “We do not tolerate copyright infringement, which is why we use industry-leading, advanced filtering technology to detect and prohibit unauthorized recordings,” the company added. Roblox’s audience constitutes nearly more than 30 million daily users. Out of which, half of the audience consists of kids under the age of 13 years.
However, the company reported its revenue approximately of $588.7 million during the first nine months of the year 2020, a 68 percent increase over the same period. Roblox went public via a direct listing in the month of March and stated in its prospectus that its users spent an average of about 2.6 hours daily on the platform over the past year.
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