[STEAM] Sony hit with a lawsuit over a Fortnite dance

[Steam 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Huge gaming corporations are no strangers to lawsuits, no matter who they're coming from. We've got governments, individuals, other companies, and everyone in between suing each other like there's no tomorrow, and often for good reasons.

However, Sony is now facing a very funny lawsuit, one started by a dance move licensed by the company to Epic Games that turned it into an official Fortnite emote.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Darrin Henson, the creator of the famous Bye, Bye, Bye choreography featured in the Deadpool & Wolverine movie as well as Fortnite, has lodged a lawsuit against Sony Music Holdings, alleging the company licensed his property without approval.

Henson filed the suit in a federal court on March 27, claiming to be the "rightful owner" of the choreography and that Sony was in no position to license it out to others without his say, Complex writes.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Marvel and Sony themselves were left out of the lawsuit, as it explicitly targets Sony, despite the fact that the dance was used in a Marvel film and Epic's own Fortnite. Nevertheless, Henson alleges that others are benefitting from the dance, i.e., the actor Nick Pauley in Deadpool & Wolverine, as well as that it is now being associated with the movie instead of NSYNC's song and music video.

Henson won an MTV Award for Best Choreography for the dance back in the early 2000s, when NSYNC was still active. It was first performed during a live NSYNC concert in 1999, with Sony claiming ownership over it because it also owns the music video for its related song. However, Henson says he never transferred ownership of the choreography, which predates the music video itself.

He now wants the court to declare that he is the sole owner of the choreography and be granted any profits generated from its use of late, Complex writes.

Choreographies can be copyrighted per the 1976 Copyright Act, but not every dance is "original" enough to be such,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. It's rather dubious trying to qualify bodily movements as original or distinct enough to be considered someone's property, so I'm genuinely intrigued to see where this lawsuit will go.

Either way, I find it hilarious that Fortnite dances continue their long history of litigation, following numerous unsuccessful attempts (though, to be fair, those were targeted at Epic itself).

The post

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

appeared first on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up