Carlton v. Fortnite — Copyright Dance-Off! (Real Law Review)

The first 500 Legal Eagles will get 2 months of unlimited learning on Skillshare for FREE: https://legaleagle.link/skillshare
Carlton Banks, the Backpack Kid, and 2 Milly are suing Fortnite for stealing their dances.

Can you copyright a dance?

Actually yes, you can. Sometimes.

It’s new to the Copyright Act of 1976, which explicitly made choreography copyrightable for the first time (before that, the dance would have to qualify for copyright protection as a drama work)

In these lawsuits, Alfonso Ribeiro, the actor who played Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, created a dance called “The Carlton” named after his eponymous character. Rapper, 2 Milly created a dance called “Milly Rock.” The Backpack Kid created “The Floss” which you see basically everywhere, right now. The trio are suing Epic Games, the creator of the wildly popular Fortnite: Battle Royale video game.

All of the dances are purchasable in-game as “emotes.” Epic Games has included the dances as a microtransaction in Fortnite. Potentially, game developers are making millions of dollars from people wanting to emulate the dances.

Ribeiro also names Take Two Interactive, the maker of NBA 2K, in his lawsuit. The popular basketball video game also uses The Carlton dance. In NBA 2k the dance is called "So Fresh" and in Fortnite it's called "Fresh". Both are obvious nods to the 90's sitcom, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (which, of course, starred Will Smith).

The suit follows other, similar lawsuits from rapper 2 Milly over his dance move the "Milly Rock". The Backpack Kid (real name Russell Horning) also filed suit over his dance the "Floss" which Fortnite helped make famous. The developer has added other user-created dances to the game, including the “Poison Dance” by Donald Faison in Scrubs.

The lawsuit alleges that: "Epic intentionally induces others to perform these dances and mark them with those hashtags, which give attribution to and endorse Fortnite the game," and "Epic has consistently sought to exploit African-American talent, in particular in Fortnite, by copying their dances and movements and sell them through emotes."

(Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video and helping to make this channel possible)

Welcome to Real Law Review by LegalEagle; a new series on this channel where I try to tackle the most important legal issues of the day. If you have suggestion for the next topic leave your comment below.

And if you disagree, be sure to leave your comment in the form of an OBJECTION!

Remember to make your comments Stella-appropriate. Stella is the LegalBeagle and she wields the gavel of justice. DO NOT MESS WITH STELLA.

If you’d like to see me critique your favorite legal TV show or movie like Suits or Better Call Saul, check out my Real Layer Reacts series, https://goo.gl/42fKce

All clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

Typical legal disclaimer from a lawyer (occupational hazard): This is not legal advice, nor can I give you legal advice. Sorry! Everything here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney client relationship. Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos!

========================================================
★ Tweet me @legaleagleDJ
★ More vids on Facebook: ➜ https://www.facebook.com/legaleaglereacts
★ Stella’s Insta: https://www.instagram.com/stellathelegalbeagle

Видео Carlton v. Fortnite — Copyright Dance-Off! (Real Law Review) канала LegalEagle