What Makes This Fortnite Lawsuit Different from the Others?
Epic Games’ legal team has to be a group of well-seasoned veterans by now. The struggles the company faced against Apple were a landmark event back in the day, and Fortnite seems to have out of that relatively clean.
This lawsuit isn’t quite as grandiose, but neither is it unfamiliar territory for Epic Games. They’re accused of stealing another dance for use in an emote – once that the claimant says he copyrighted. This has, sadly, become very familiar territory for Fortnite’s legal team. Very, very familiar. But there’s a single major difference here that could change things – at least, that’s what the claimant hopes.
Kyle Hanagami, a youtuber and dance choreographer, is the one filing this particular lawsuit. He says that the “It’s Complicated” emote was stolen from him, and wants it taken out of the game.
Other lawsuits against Epic Games ended when the claimants didn’t have those dances copyrighted. Hanagami has no such issue – which means this Fortnite lawsuit could end a lot differently. As for the odds on that, well, we’ll have to see. Hanagami clearly thinks that going through the effort here is worthwhile, and we’ll have to see how accurate those predictions were.