4 times Fortnite was sued for stealing dance moves for their emotes

The quality and quantity of emotes in Fortnite have changed drastically with the inclusion of dances. Players love to perform their favorite dances in the game after elimination or before entering the Battle Bus.

Fortnite emotes that are copied from real-life dances (Image via Epic Games)

Surprisingly, there have been several occasions where Fortnite has had to face legal trouble with its dance emotes. From popular rap artists to saxophonists, many have accused the game of stealing their moves.

Here are four times when Fortnite was sued for stealing dance moves.

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Top four dance lawsuits against Fortnite

4) Phone It In

Phone It In is easily one of the most entertaining emotes in Fortnite, where the character plays saxophone and simultaneously dances on the melody. Interestingly, Leo Pellegrino sued Epic Games for copying his musical performances and making a profit off them.

It is no surprise that Epic Games prevailed in the lawsuit because Fortnite characters share no biological features with the saxophonist.

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3) Fresh

Popular actor Alfonso Ribeiro is credited with creating the 'Carlton' dance from the show 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'. Apparently, the actor used to do the dance on the show way before the development of Fortnite even began.

However, Epic Games added an emote called 'Fresh' where the character performed a dance similar to Ribeiro's Carlton. The actor initially filed a lawsuit against Epic Games but later dropped it without giving any reason.

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2) Swipe It

Rapper 2 Milly filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for stealing his dance move called 'Milly Rock' and adding it to Fortnite as 'Swipe It'.

However, in response, Epic Games clarified that both dances are related but not identical. Moreover, no artist can claim a dance move unless it reaches the level of 'choreography'.

2 Milly was no exception and eventually had to drop the lawsuit.

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1) The Floss

Russell Horning, better known as The Backpack Kid, sued Epic Games for copying his 'The Floss' dance. The 'Floss' dance is one of the most popular emotes in the game's history, and to this day, people associate Fortnite with it.

Horning's dance is identical to the emote. But yet again, his lawsuit made no sense because he does not own the copyright to his dance.

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The number of lawsuits have reduced off late

There has been a significant reduction in the number of dance lawsuits filed against Epic Games lately. Apparently, artists have realized they cannot own the copyright to some dance steps, and even Fortnite has started giving credit to artists for their songs/dances.

All in all, dance emotes in Fortnite have always been controversial. While some players want Epic Games to give credit to the artists whose dances inspire it to make dance emotes, others feel that the developer is independent of copying dance moves and releasing them as Fortnite emotes.

Luckily, no such controversies have occurred during Fortnite Chapter 3, and the community loves the new content.