Epic Games, the makers of the video game Fortnite, is being sued again for allegedly stealing someone’s dance and this time it’s by Alfonso Ribeiro. The news comes shortly after the company was sued by the rapper 2 Milly and accused of swiping his Milly Rock dance.
According to TMZ, Ribeiro said Epic Games stole his Carlton Dance, made popular on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” throughout the 90s. Plus, the actor still performs the dance on occasion, when he’s on talk shows for example and broke it out during his time on “Dancing with the Stars.”
In documents, Ribeiro’s legal team said that Fortnite added a new dance to the game called the “Fresh emote,” and if you look at a side-by side comparison of the two dances, they’re nearly identical.
Ribeiro is now in the process of copyrighting the Carlton Dance, and he’s also filed a suit against 2K, the creators of NBA 2K Games for the exact same reason.
“It is widely recognized that Mr. Ribeiro’s likeness and intellectual property have been misappropriated by Epic Games in the most popular video game currently in the world, Fortnite,” wrote the actor’s attorney, David Hect. “Epic has earned record profits off of downloadable content in the game, including emotes like Fresh.”
“Yet Epic has failed to compensate or even ask permission from Mr. Ribeiro for the use of his likeness and iconic intellectual property. Therefore, Mr. Ribeiro is seeking his fair and reasonable share of profits Epic has earned by use of his iconic intellectual property in ‘Fortnight’ and as a result is requesting throughout the courts that Epic cease all use of Mr. Ribeiro’s signature dance.”
Fortnite, nor 2K Games have commented at this time.
