By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Roblox (NYSE:RBLX) shares fell 1% early on in Friday’s trading as the company faces a $200 million copyright infringement lawsuit from a group of music publishers.
The National Music Publishers’ Association has sued Roblox seeking at least $200 million in damages for the illegal consumption of music on the social gaming platform.
The video game platform company is accused of allowing developers to insert features or boomboxes into games that play copyrighted music without permission or any payment.
The NMPA says the unauthorized music includes songs by Ariana Grande, Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran, the Rolling Stones and others.
“Roblox actively preys on its impressionable user base and their desire for popular music, teaching children that pirating music is perfectly acceptable,” the complaint says, according to WSJ.
Roblox had 42.1 million daily users as of March. “We expeditiously respond to any valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act request by removing any infringing content and, in accordance with our stringent repeat infringer policy, taking action against anyone violating our rules,” Roblox wrote in a mail to Investing.com.
It said the lawsuit represents “a fundamental misunderstanding” of how the Roblox platform operates, and “will defend Roblox vigorously as we work to achieve a fair resolution."