[How To] Stop Clothing Copying

Join Date: 2009-03-19
Post Count: 174

#185261866Sunday, March 13, 2016 5:11 PM GMT

Since NBC Shirt Creators was recently deleted, and Roblox just announced R15 with even more option for user-created content, now seems an appropriate time to make this suggestion: Make copying clothing against Roblox Terms of Service. The last major update to support existing and new designers was the addition of price floors. When price floors were implemented in 2013, Roblox gave three main reasons for doing so: 1. Raise the quality of items in the catalog. 2. Reward makers and sellers of clothing. 3. To incentivize non-paying users to buy ROBUX. They even stated at the time that “One huge problem is copying. If I make a great shirt and sell it for 20 R$, it’s fairly easy to copy it and sell the copy for 19. Or 10. Or 1. ROBLOX wants to reward creativity, not copying.” But a more effective method to reward creativity would be to ban copying in the first place. Implementation of this rule could be difficult, but there are several possible systems which could all be put in place to enforce it. First, Roblox could block access to asset pages in browsers. This would prevent the most common method of copying, though not all, and not some of the high quality copies. Additionally, the item textures could possibly be blocked, as seems to be the case with one shirt Roblox uploaded, at http://www.roblox.com/RBXM-RobloxUShirt-item?id=176086704. Second, a copied content reporting system with a new category of report could be added. When a user reports copied content, they must provide a link to the original, and that original must be one of their items, so that only designers would be reporting copies of their work and the system wouldn’t get too bogged down. After providing the link, a program would compare the two upload dates to verify that the reporter’s item was created first. Then, an algorithm would compare the images within the template areas, and if sufficiently identical, delete the copy (such as [Content Deleted] for inappropriate items) and transfer all sales numbers, favorites, and ownership to the original design(er). The profits could likely not be transferred since the copier probably spent them, but stopping the copy from gaining more momentum would be sufficient. If the algorithm did not show the two items to be identical, the templates of the two items would then go to a human moderator to answer simply “are these effectively the same item, yes or no?” because the copier may have simply changed a few pixels to outsmart the algorithm. Then the same statistics transfer would take place. Initially, this would probably increase work for moderators, but once the copying ban becomes well-established, the workload would sharply decrease as it seems the majority of file uploads reviewed by image moderators now are copies. (This system also means that if you copy for yourself because price floors are too high, and don’t sell it, if the designer doesn’t care they can let you keep it.) Third, repeat copying offenses after the implementation of this rule could result in multiple punishments. The usual escalation of bans could take place, or a user could be prevented from uploading items for a certain time period (e.g. you cannot upload any clothes for the next 48 hours). Additionally, repeat offenders could receive a label on their items warning users that the item may be copied, and be declined from cashing out their sales with DevEx as that money should really go to the original designers.

Cpnwimvu

Join Date: 2009-03-19
Post Count: 174

#185261935Sunday, March 13, 2016 5:12 PM GMT

Tl;dr: Block browser access to asset pages, add a copied content reporting/moderation system, and punish copiers to keep them from uploading more items.