Tag: Tommy Tallarico

If you haven’t been paying attention to his Twitter account over the past while, Tommy Tallarico of the Amico Tallarico clan has been in a back and forth kerfuffle with Roblox over allegations that Tommy owns the rights to the “oof” sound effect that has become iconic to Roblox over the past decade or so, and that Roblox is continuing to use the sound effect without his permission and without compensation. Tommy has been attempting to negotiate a settlement to avoid a potential legal battle but has yet to have any luck.

Roblox has officially responded to the allegations, claiming that the oof sound was obtained from a stock sound CD-ROM that was legally purchased consisting of copyright free sounds. They further claim that Tommy has furnished no proof of ownership, although admit that they have been working to reach a fair resolution (which would be needless if Tommy didn’t own the sound).

Roblox’s founders, Erik and David, got the oof sound (along with all the original Roblox sounds) from a stock sound CD-ROM they purchased of licensed, copyright free sounds (not from an illegal website as Tommy has suggested on social media).

We deeply respect the rights of IP creators, and we have built our platform over the past 12+ years based on respecting and honoring creators.
Despite the fact that Tommy has no copyright to the “oof” sound (and in response to our requests he has presented us no proof of ownership to it) we’ve nevertheless been working in good faith to reach a fair resolution with him. As part of that, we have asked Tommy to become part of our creative community and we look forward to exploring that opportunity with him further.

The full statement can be found at the following link. Tommy alleges that he created the sound effect for the game Messiah which readers can listen to at the embedded video below. Tommy has also stated that he has possession of the original recordings of the sound.

Um… I have the original DAT tape recording, a video, a contract and my metadata on the sound. As well as a ton of sounds just like the one they took. Yes… lets go to court and see who wins. @Roblox ignorance on display. How about showing your proof of this so called https://t.co/iMezQbJWPk

— TommyTallarico (@TommyTallarico) January 11, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js