Should Epic share the profits made from Fortnite dances with the original creators?
"Hip-hop's contribution to the gaming world goes unrecognised".
Some of the original creators of Fortnite's signature dances are unhappy that their moves have been used without due credit or compensation in Epic Games' hugely popular battle royale game.
A new video by Insider (thanks, PCGN) explains how some of Fortnite's most iconic moves like Swipe It and Tidy are based on real-life dance moves of hip-hop artists like Chance the Rapper, Snoop Dogg, and 2 Milly, and have become viral in their own right. Here, take a look:
Fortnite's use of viral hip-hop dances has caused a debate over cultural appropriation in video games 🎮 pic.twitter.com/d6VeqZF8BnSeptember 25, 2018
An American intellectual property law attorney who contributed to the report confirmed that the US Copyright Office cannot accept copyright claims for individual dance moves owing to creative choreographic expression. But given the moves are sold separately by Epic and are not available for free, it raises the more ethical question of whether or not the studio should compensate the creators of the moves, or—as Chance the Rapper suggests—accompany the dances with the original tracks that created them, and share profits earned by the sale of the moves with the original artists.
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