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Fortnite The creator Epic Games faces a lawsuit brought by New York saxophonist Leo Pellegrino, who claims that the developer used his unauthorized identity to create a saxophone dance in the game. The lawsuit was filed today. in a federal district court in eastern Pennsylvania.
The emote, called "Phone It In", allows players to extract the copper instrument and play a quick melody while dancing. Pellegrino, best known for his Brass House band, Too Many Zooz, explains that his "trademarks have become inseparable from his character and his story" and that Epic had never asked for permission from anyone else. 39, use his identity or "his signature".
Pellegrino is represented by Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP, the same firm representing a number of other artists, celebrities on the Internet and actors in lawsuits against Epic. Other customers include Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Star Alfonso Ribeiro, Russell's "Backpack Kid" Horning, the unnamed Fortnite fan known as "Orange Shirt Kid" and rappers Terrence "2 Milly" Ferguson and James "BlocBoy JB" Baker.
In this case, Pellegrino does not claim the author's right for his saxophone dance, but he pursues exclusively for misappropriation. All other cases attempt to establish that dance movements may be protected by copyright, a controversial interpretation of the law without a clear legal precedent.
The choice is probably a legal strategy. Almost all the lawsuits against Epic are on hold after a Supreme Court ruling. This decision forces the US Copyright Office to react before all suits can proceed. As a result, five of his lawsuits were tentatively filed by Pierce Bainbridge last month, pending the approval of copyright. As the Pellegrino case is entirely based on the right of resemblance, it should not be affected by this pause.
At the same time, Fortnite has a long history of drawing similarities in pop culture. At the end of 2017, the game added a skin called The Reaper, very clearly inspired by the character of Keanu Reeves in John Wick movies. We also use dances popularized by Snoop Dog and Will Smith, as well as actor Donald Faison, whose dance for the sitcom Scrubs has become the default Fortnite emote when the variant of the royal battle was launched in September 2017. It is not clear if Epic bought the rights of resemblance for any of the subjects. In a statement, a spokesman for Epic said the company was not commenting on the ongoing litigation.
It is not clear that Fortnite"Phone It In" emote is copying Pellegrino. In announcing the lawsuit, Hecht posted a video of Pellegrino live to prove the misappropriation of his likeness. Part of the statement seems to be that Pellegrino uses "feet pointing outwards" while playing and that his other signature is "his love of energetic performances on saxophone". The edge that Pellegrino is "duck feet", which means that his flared feet are the result of his natural anatomy.
However, it can also be argued that the epic emote is inspired by a similarly known as Epic Sax Guy, in which the Moldovan musician Sergey Stepanov enthusiastically interprets the saxophone while performing the song "Run Away" for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010. It quickly became viral at the time and remains an easy-to-find memento today, with many remixes and editions on YouTube.
The search on "Epic Sax Guy Fortnite" (videos) shows many videos comparing the performance of Stepanov to the emote "Phone It In", thus establishing a link between obvious similarities.
Whatever the inspiration, FortniteThe emotion-based economy has been undeniably lucrative. Last year, Epic would have generated $ 2.4 billion on the game, solely through these transactions in the game and subscription service Battle Pass, which includes some of the emotions for which the developer was pursued. We still do not know if Epic owes some of this money to the creators who inspire its aesthetics and the objects it offers for sale.
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