Choreographer Kyle Hanagami has asked the Ninth Circuit appeals court in the US to intervene in his dispute with Fortnite maker Epic Games over allegations it infringed the rights in one of his dance sequences via an emote it sold within the gaming platform.Fortnite emotes allow gamers to have their in-game avatar move in a certain way.
Choreography is protected by copyright and various people have accused Epic of exploiting their copyright protected movements when creating certain emotes.
Though, in the main, legal claims in this domain have been unsuccessful. But Hanagami’s legal team reckoned his case was stronger than those which had gone before.Hanagami accused Epic of lifting elements of a dance routine he created for the music video that accompanied the Charlie Puth song ‘How Long’, and then using them in an emote called It’s Complicated.The gaming firm argued that the small number of moves its emote shares with the ‘How Long’ dance sequence were not sufficiently substantial to be protected by copyright in isolation.
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