Fortnite Sued by YouTuber & Choreographer Over Copyrighted Dance
Developer Epic Games is being sued by a YouTuber and choreographer over the use of a dance emote in its battle royale title Fortnite. The popular 2017 online video game features in-game dance emotes, many of which are based on dance moves from pop culture. The dance emotes are made available to players for a small fee.
Epic Games has previously come under fire for its emotes, with multiple people suing Fornite over its in-game dances. This includes a range of celebrities like rapper 2 Milly, actor Alfonso Ribeiro, and even the viral meme-creating Backpack Kid. In these three cases specifically, the performers did not actually own a copyright to their dances despite being the ones who popularized them. As such, the creators of the dance moves could not legally claim the dance moves as their own. It seemed that similar cases brought to court against Epic Games would not end in the favor of the plaintiffs. However, the newest Fortnite dance emote-related case may prove to be different this time.
Although the aforementioned Fortnite dance lawsuits have been dropped temporarily, Epic Games has been hit with another dance move lawsuit. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, YouTuber Kyle Hanagami has filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for its alleged unauthorized use of one of the content creator's copyrighted choreographed dance moves. This suit claims that Fortnite's 2020 "It's Complicated" dance emote copies the hook of one of Hanagami's copyrighted dance moves from 2017. In addition to a court order that terminates the use of the dance emote in Fortnite, Hanagami requests legal fees and compensatory damages.
Hanagami's lawsuit against Epic Games is noticeably different from past lawsuits against Fortnite's developer. Unlike the previous lawsuits, Hanagami actually copyrighted the dance move in question before it appeared in the online video game. The YouTuber's claim of a copyright may be what is needed to win the case as opposed to the previous lawsuits and the even less solid Fortnite dance lawsuit from the Orange Shirt Kid. With this new case, it perhaps seems clear that Hanagami has not only popularized the dance move, but also owns the rights to it.
Though Fortnite is a battle royale title, it has developed a reputation for its use of dance emotes, especially when associated with related lawsuits. With the filing of yet another court case, its unclear what the future of dance emotes in the game may look like, but it seems as though Epic may have a very different lawsuit against it this time.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz