Fortnite developer Epic Games has come under fire for the past couple of months for their seeming appropriation of numerous dances as purchasable player emotes, including BlocBoy JB’s “shoot” dance and Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” moves. Now, Brooklyn rapper 2 Milly has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Epic Games in California district court. 2 Milly claims his dance moves from the video for his song “Milly Rock” now colloquially known as “milly rocking” were appropriated for the Fortnite emote “Swipe It.”
Court documents reveal that 2 Milly thinks Epic Games “should not be able to profit from Ferguson’s (2 Milly) fame and hard work by its intentional misappropriation of Ferguson’s original content or likeness.” The documents also cite the other emotes lifted from African-American actors and musicians in popular culture as evidence that Epic “consistently sought to exploit African-American talent in particular in Fortnite by copying their dances and movements.”
CNBC reports that as of May 2018, Epic has made over $1 billion in revenue off of Fortnite since its release in September 2017. Ferguson is seeking injunctive relief as well as unspecified damages.
We’re just going to have to see how this plays out.
