Ferguson began criticizing Epic for not asking his permission or providing him any compensation. Earlier this year, Epic put 2 Milly’s signature dance, the Milly Rock, into Fortnite as an emote called “Swipe It.” Although Epic never sold the dance directly for money, it included “Swipe It” as part of its season paid subscription service. The first case comes from a rapper called 2 Milly, whose real name is Terrance Ferguson. Beyond that, the court will have to decide whether using a dance move in a video game can be considered appropriating someone’s likeness, in effect using someone else’s identity to sell something. The biggest question is whether a dance move can be copyrighted at all - a legal matter that has never been fully answered.
It’s the beginning of a complicated and precedent-setting series of legal cases, dealing with both dance as an art form and the video game industry at large. Now, the process behind how those emotes are created and whether they can actually violate the copyright of a work of art is coming under scrutiny. Game studios make new ones every day, and Epic sells its Fortnite emotes for anywhere between $5 and $10, contributing substantially to the hundreds of millions in monthly revenue earned by its battle royale mega-hit. Epic Games’ Fortnite is the biggest game on the planet right now, but one of its biggest sources of revenue - the ubiquitous dance “emotes” - are now under legal threat from the pop culture icons that claim to have created them.Įmotes have become a big business in the game industry.
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