There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the dance emotes in Epic’s popular shooter, Fortnite. The entertainment industry are suing the company for copyright infringements, claiming the developer stole their dance moves without giving proper credit.
A lawyer on YouTube who goes by LegalEagle explains that a person in fact can copyright a dance, as this legislation was recently introduced.
LegalEagle gives his opinion on who might win the lawsuit, and begins by explaining that the plaintiff will probably argue that these Fortnite dances are instantly recognizable and should therefore be protected by copyright law, even though they are short. In his opinion, the defendant would then argue that this is not the case, as these dance moves are not minimally creative and that they are standard dance moves that one can find anywhere.
LegalEagle then concludes that he thinks that the defendants have the better argument and that Epic might win the court case based on the fact that the dances used in Fortnite are social dances, rather than long choreographed works of art. This case could go either way, though, as both parties have very good arguments to make and because a case like this has never been seen before. It will be interesting to see how this emote lawsuit will pan out, and whether Epic will win as LegalEagle predicts.
