Epic Games has been accused of copyright infringement for appropriating the dance from 2 Milly’s 2014 video
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| © *Fortnite* mobile, photo Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Fortnite |
By Noah Yoo, Pitchfork
Fortnite developer Epic Games has come under fire for the past several months
for their seeming appropriation of numerous dances as purchasable
player emotes, including BlocBoy JB’s “shoot” dance and Snoop Dogg’s
“Drop It Like It’s Hot” moves.
Now,
New York rapper 2 Milly has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit
against Epic Games in California district court. 2 Milly (real name
Terrence Ferguson) claims his dance moves from the video for his song
“Milly Rock”—now colloquially known as “milly rocking”—were appropriated
for the Fortnite emote “Swipe It.”
Court documents
viewed by Pitchfork reveal that Ferguson thinks Epic Games “should not
be able to profit from Ferguson’s fame and hard work by its intentional
misappropriation of Ferguson’s original content or likeness.”
The
documents also cite the other emotes lifted from African-American
actors and musicians in popular culture as evidence that Epic
“consistently sought to exploit African-American talent in particular in
Fortnite by copying their dances and movements.”
CNBC reports that as of May 2018, Epic has made over $1 billion in revenue off of Fortnite
since its release in September 2017. Ferguson is seeking injunctive
relief as well as unspecified damages. Pitchfork has reached out to
representatives for Epic Games for further comment.
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