Some of you may laugh, but the question we should be asking is, “Are people falsely accusing Fortnite of using their dances or is Fortnite actually profiting from copying their dances?” It seems to me Fortnite is taking those artists’ dances and quite blatantly relying on the recognition of those “movements” as those artists’ dances to sell them. (E.g. They’re not selling you on some random movements or movements that inspired the Carlton dance. They’re selling you specifically on the one Carlton did and relying on that specific association with its origin to monetize it.) Copyright law is always going to be fighting the fight of balancing protecting people’s intellectual creations against protecting the public from being sued for any mundane repetition someone tries to claim as their property.
Discussions are always going on about what should and should not be protected by copyright. This is especially true when trying to keep up with technological advancements, as is the case with these dance moves being sold as a way for Epic to monetize their F2P videogame. This is something that should definitely be considered in discussing what should constitute copyright. This may all settle with the law erring on the side of protecting people from being sued for “arm swinging,” but it seems to me Epic isn’t so much playing by the spirit of the copyright laws as much as they’ve found a potential blind spot within the existing laws.
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