Not that complicated—lawsuit over Fortnite dance 'It's Complicated' dismissed by judge
First spotted by PCGamesN(opens in new tab), a judge for the Central District of California has dismissed a lawsuit by choreographer Kyle Hanagami against Epic. Hanagami filed the suit in April(opens in new tab), alleging that Epic had used his choreography for the 2017 music video «How Long» by Charlie Puth without permission or attribution.
Epic faced controversy beginning in 2018 over the sourcing of its many emote dances in Fortnite. A sequence of artists including 2 Mily and Alfonso Ribeiro filed lawsuits against the company for copyright infringement, but a 2019 Supreme Court ruling determined that dance choreography has to be formally copyrighted before an artist can sue, thwarting most of the cases(opens in new tab).
Not so for Hanagami's case: his choreography for How Long was copyrighted. Hanagami claims he was never approached for licensing by Epic, and his lawyer, David Hecht, shared a fairly convincing video(opens in new tab) demonstrating the similarities between the two dances.
Honestly, it looks pretty darn similar to me, but Judge Wilson's dismissal approaches it from a different angle. The judge argues that the standard for copyrightable choreography under the law applies to more lengthy movements than the several seconds at question in a Fortnite emote.
«The Copyright Act's legislative history specifically states that 'choreographic works do not include social dance steps and simple routines.'» the judge's ruling reads, later pointing to similar examples of an entire dance production being copyrighted, but shorter sequences within being fair game. The ruling continues later, «Whichever way the Court evaluates Plaintiff's Steps—two seconds, four beats of music, or eight body positions, repeated ten
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