Why Is Sabrina Carpenter's Song "Espresso" Being Muted On Roblox?

Weird story, but the other day I was playing Roblox, specifically a game called “Save One Song! (World)”. In this game, there are various different songs being played by different artists, such as Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo. These songs were being played like normal; you hear a clip of a song and vote for the best. However, when the song “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter came up, it was muted. You were unable to hear any part of the song. Yet, earlier in the week when I was playing, I was able to hear the song. I started to wonder why I wasn’t able to hear this song specifically, as well as the other songs that were muted. Why are some songs muted while other songs by bigger artists are allowed to be played? I also noticed the same thing on Youtube. There is this specific form of content that people post called “Sped Up Versions", where people just take a song, make it faster, and post it for people to listen to. It has become quite popular in recent years with younger generations. Anyway, I also noticed that some songs that were “sped up” would be taken down or muted if it was in a compilation, while other songs in the same compilation or posted by the same channel on Youtube were able to stay up. I really just started to wonder why that is. Why are some songs okay to be edited to be faster, while other songs are taken down or muted? What makes the songs different from each other? Is it artist preference, or something to do with legal ownership? 

Copyright is the simple answer. Copyright is a legal protection that protects the original work. It protects how this work is expressed, typically not the way it was made. When the owner has this legal protection, they have the exclusive rights to use it, however there are some exceptions. Owners can sell, make, distribute, and display their work, as well as, transfer the rights of the work to another person or a group. Now, the terms of copyright can vary depending on the date of creation of work. There are also some exceptions and limitations, which means that some people can use the work without permission, that way people can use previous work to influence and create a new piece of work. 

How do you identify who the owner or author of the work is? When filing copyright, whoever creates the work is the original owner of copyright. This is typically based on different circumstances as well as transfer of ownership. This can make it very difficult to identify the owner. However, if the work is made for hire, meaning that the work is made for an employer or commissioner, then the work belongs to the hiring party, not whoever made the work. Not every commissioned work is WMFH though. For example, if you make a presentation for work, like something about a new proposal or a plan, your employer or hiring party (whichever you may have) is the owner of that presentation since it is made for the company, not for yourself. If you are trying to find an owner after everything is filed, then you should look for a Copyright Notice. A Copyright Notice is a notice that is given to owners to show that they have ownership over a published piece of work. With these notices, the person or group of owners will be listed, that way you can identify who has the copyright. Another resource you can use is online resources. There are many different sites you can look up to find catalogs of copyright, like the U.S. Copyright Office’s online records or the University of Pennsylvania Libraries’ Online Books Page. You can also request the Copyright Office to search in its records for you, but you will have to pay a fee. 

What forms does an individual have to fill out for copyright? Well, there are several different forms depending on what type of media you are trying to copyright. One would fill out a Literary Form TX if you were trying to copyright literary works. Visual Form VA is for visual art works. Performing Arts Form PA is for performing arts, which is art performed in front of an audience directly or indirectly. Single Serials Form SE is for different types of serials, such as newspapers or periodicals. Sound Recording Form SR is for sound recordings. All of these copyright forms can be filled through the U.S. Copyright Office if you are in the United States, but according to the Copyright Office, they will charge you a fee. You can apply for copyright online with the electronic Copyright office (eCO) or one can request the forms to be sent in the mail. Nowadays, online applications are faster than the paper forms. For the song “Espresso”, Carpenter and her team most likely have filled the song under musical work copyright, which is for the lyrics and words, and a sound recording copyright for the music as well as other aspects of the recording process.

Additionally, Carpenter and her team could also apply for Composition Copyright and Master Copyright. According to The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, copyright composition, also known as publishing rights, is a form of copyright that protects the song’s words and music. This is what is usually owned by the songwriter or publisher. This copyright makes anyone that wants to use the song have to obtain a license that applies to their situation (cover, movie use, etcetera). According to Creative Law Network, Master Copyright (sound recording copyright) is a copyright that protects the recording of the composition, which is basically the act of making a form of music or the finished product. So, this copyright protects a specific recording of a song. This means that someone can own the copyright of their own cover of a song, while the original artist can own the composition copyright. 

How does copyright attack those without the copyright for something? Well, if someone who does not have copyright who misuses someone's copyrighted work without permission or violates the rights of the owner’s copyright is called Copyright Infringement. For this to occur, the copyright owner must have valid copyright, the person accused must have access to copyrighted work, and the copying or misuse of the work must be outside of any established exceptions (legal use). According to the U.S. Copyright Office, if someone were to be charged for copyright infringement, they would have to pay for the damages of the losses or injury and the profits that they earned from the work, pay statutory damages based on the harm done, pay the cost of fees for trial, have any infringing items seized for the court, and dispose any records of the copyrighted work. 

What are some limitations of copyright? What are some of its weak points? For starters, copyright doesn’t fully stop someone from using your work.  As I mentioned before, someone can just have a license that applies to what they are doing with your work, and still be allowed to cover it or be inspired by it. Additionally, copyright does have a copyright term length. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, the length of the copyright obtained depends on when the work was created. If your work was created on or after January 1st, 1978, then the copyright term is the creator’s life plus an additional 70 years after they die. If work made for hire, anonymously, or pseudonymous, then the term of the copyright is either 95 years after it was published or 120 years after it was created, whichever is the shorter period. So, your copyrighted work can be no longer copyrighted after a certain number of years. Also, there is the Fair Use law. According to the University of Memphis, the Fair Use law is section 107 of the Copyright Act. This includes limitations on exclusive rights, like copying to make literary works, copying to intend teaching, and copying for performance. This law allows people to use copyrighted work if it is used in a fair way. Judges consider the purpose/character of the use, the nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market and profit. If someone were to use the copyrighted work more than their own work, as well as take the most important parts and use them often, then it will most likely not be fair use. Overall, this means that people can use copyrighted work, as long as they are adding the majority of their own work when they are inspired by it, and not just copying it word for word.

For Carpenter’s song “Espresso”, it may have been muted on Roblox because the person who uploaded the audio to Roblox may have not had a proper license that follows the rules of copyright. The audio clip was directly taken from the song, so it wasn’t a cover or a mash-up of the original song. This may have directly violated the rules of the copyright Carpenter and her team may have filed for, since they would most likely have the ownership of Master Copyright for that version. If a cover was uploaded, there is probably a higher chance it would be allowed on Roblox and allowed to be used. On Roblox, “Espresso” may have been misused or used in a way that the publishing team and Carpenter may not have wanted, which was probably the reason the song was removed. 

Looking at the business side of the song removal, Carpenter wasn’t probably able to make profit off of the song being on Roblox. Copyright allows the song to be used for profit by the creators and the publishing team, not anyone else that doesn’t own the version of the song. Creators have the right to determine how and what their work will be used for, because it is their work. Since Carpenter and her team produced this song for profit, like any music is made for, having the song on a service where they couldn’t make the profit would be a loss for her and her team. The game, however, could have been making a profit off of “Espresso” being in the game, meaning that their would have been missed out profit for the creators of the song. Additionally, Roblox no longer allows any unowned copyrighted music nor do they pay artists for having their songs on the platform, like how Apple Music or Spotify would pay them. According to Roblox Help, it is against The Roblox Terms of Use to upload music unless you own it or it is properly licensed. If someone fails to do this, then they will be flagged by moderation as well as the song will be replaced with licensed music. Recently, Roblox has partnered with DistroKid, which will allow independent artists to have their music distributed on the platform and have a catalog of licensed music for games to use. This partnership doesn’t leave much room for people to use copyrighted music they don’t own, since they now have many songs that are available for fair use, as well as, they don’t pay other artists to have their songs on the platform. 

To summarize, the main reasons why Carpenter’s song, “Espresso”, was taken off of Roblox is because it most likely violated the copyright terms, violated fair use laws, and her and her team couldn’t make profit from the song being on Roblox. The song being removed is not entirely a bad thing. The person or people who put the audio on Roblox probably were not aware of the rules of the copyright, so the song just got muted by the moderation team to avoid further problems. As well, you want Carpenter, the producers, and song writers of the song “Espresso” to be able to earn what they worked hard for, since the song is an amazing song. I would personally want to earn money from a song that is really popular and I worked hard for if it was mine. I just think it’s interesting to see how many steps, rules, and limitations their is to copyright, and how it’s a long process for what seems like such a simple thing. Anyway, listen to “Espresso” by Sarina Carpenter, because I love the song and you learned about the copyright process of it!

*** I do not own the rights to this photo! I took the photo from Entertainment Weekly, so all rights of the photo belong to them!