Can you copyright a dance? That's yet to be proven either way in court but a number of dancers are looking to try and make it so. Following Epic Game's use of iconic dances from several dancers, actors, and characters in Fortnitge, a number of the original dance creators are taking legal action against the developer to try and recover royalties for the use of the dance moves.
Fortnite's dances are one of the more popular taunt mechanics in game, as well as offering new upgrade paths for adding two-factor authentication to your account, or unlockable extras paid for via in-game currency. However, many of those dances appear to have been copied move for move from people not affiliated with the game. Donald Faison's Turk-character from Scrubs has a dance in the game, and Carlton from the Fresh Prince (real name Alfonso Ribeiro) also has his famous dance in the game.
But neither men were paid for that and now Alfonso, and a few others, are trying to make that happen.
Rapper 2 Milly has also levied legal action against Epic Games, suggesting that it had stolen his Milly Rock dance. Chance the Rapper isn't suing, but has suggested that Epic license the rap songs that popularized some of the dances in the game so that the original creators can benefit from their inclusion.
Epic hasn't released a comment on this news, only to state that it doesn't comment on ongoing litigation. Many of those involved in the suits have also filed to copyright the dance moves. If those filings prove successful, Epics court case will become much harder to win.
