Epic Games is being sued over a Fortnite dance. The developer has been accused of infringing on the copyright-pending moves of the “Milly Rock” dance. The claimant is seeking a jury-led trail and hasn’t provided an initial figure for compensation as yet.
The legal proceeding has been put into motion after rapper “2 Milly” (Terrence Ferguson) claimed that his dance, the “Milly Rock” was copied by Epic Games and sold for profit. This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Epic getting a bit of a tongue lashing for its dance emotes. Not too long ago, Scrubs star Donald Faison said that the battle royale game lifted his “Poison Dance” move for move without offering reparations or even acknowledging where the dance comes from.
There is some issue surrounding Ferguson’s claim though. While Epic has sold a dance similar to the Milly Rock for a profit, the dance hasn’t yet been fully copyrighted (via Hollywood Reporter). And while there is a precedent of specific dance routines being copyrighted, having legal ownership over a part or individual move is a difficult thing to prove because there’s only a finite number of things the human body can do, supposedly.
This could be the reason that Ferguson is reportedly seeking the case to be heard by a jury as well as reportedly following up on separate charges against Epic. The rapper has accused the developer of two counts of violation of the right of publicity, one count of unfair compensation, and infringement copyright. It could be that Ferguson feels that each of these charges is warranted or he may well be looking to succeed on at least one of these charges or else settle outside of court. Whatever the cause, Ferguson’s attorney, Carolynn Beck, has said that Epic has a long-running history of appropriating dance moves while acknowledging its origins. She cites Faison’s complaints as well as routines from Snoop Dogg, Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), and others.
No court date has been set at the time of this story and Epic has yet to comment on the matter.
