Epic in new Fortnite lawsuit over allegedly stealing viral video dance Fortnite developer Epic Games has become embroiled in another lawsuit relating to the battle royale\u2019s dancing emotes, this time relating to the Halloween-themed \u201cPump It Up\u201d emote, based on a 2006 viral video. On October 30, Matthew Geiler, who has become known as the \u2018Dancing Pumpkin Man\u2019 after his 2006 video exploded in popularity across the internet, drafted a cease-and-desist letter to Epic, threatening a lawsuit regarding the emote. The game\u2019s Halloween-themed emote was available for purchase for a single day during this year\u2019s Fortnitemares event. The dance transforms players\u2019 heads into flaming pumpkins as they dance like Geiler in his thirteen-year-old viral video. Carve up the dance floor \ud83c\udf83 Grab the new Pump It Up Emote in the Item Shop now!#Fortnitemares has returned pic.twitter.com\/Pg1nvxZecg \u2014 Fortnite (@FortniteGame) October 30, 2019 Geiler suggested the emote was \u201cinfringing on his personal likeness,\u201d and stated in his letter he was \u201cprepared to take all necessary actions to protect the Dancing Pumpkin Man character\u201d if Epic failed to remove the emote from the battle royale. The Fortnite developers hit back nearly immediately, according to The Verge, filing a preemptive complaint seeking a judge\u2019s ruling on the matter. Epic also filed a complaint against Geiler and his creative consulting company Sick Picnic Media, detailing that the \u2018Dancing Pumpkin Man\u2019 isn\u2019t a trademarked character, voiding Geiler\u2019s original cease-and-desist request. The development company suggested Geiler had no right to the character because he created the costume from \u201cpreexisting, third-party Halloween jack-o-lantern decorations from his company\u2019s holiday lobby display.\u201d Epic also alleged in the court filing, which is available online, characters adorned with pumpkin heads and related to Halloween were \u201ccommon in many other creative works,\u201d including horror movies, and Marvel\u2019s Spider-man franchise. The court filing also suggests the outfit appearing in Geiler\u2019s viral video isn\u2019t \u201csubstantially similar\u201d to Fortnite\u2019s emote, with the facial features completely different, and none of the characters who use the dance wearing a black unitard. Finally, Epic\u2019s preemptive lawsuit details a licensing deal made between the Fortnite developers and Geiler, which the \u2018Dancing Pumpkin Man\u2019 previously confirmed on Facebook and in an interview with Mel Magazine, suggesting both parties had come to an agreement on the use of both the dance, and any potential likeness. There have been no further developments on whether Geiler has rescinded his initial letter, but the clock is ticking for him now: with Epic\u2019s lawsuit request, they have stipulated the court declare the company has broken no rules, which will basically force Geiler to allow Epic the continued use of the dance emote. Fortnite\u2019s developers have also asked for legal fees, expenses, and \u201cother, further, and different relief as the Court deems just and proper\u201d to be covered by Geiler if the company is deemed to have not infringed any licensing agreements. This isn\u2019t the first time Epic has been pulled into a legal battle over dances in their global phenomenon either, with several lawsuits against the games company dropped in March this year following a US Supreme Court decision relating to copyright lawsuits. Of those, the most high profile was former Fresh Prince of Bel Air star Alfonso Ribeiro\u2019s claim Epic\u2019s use of \u201cThe Carlton\u201d emote infringed on his personal copyright. That lawsuit ended after the US Copyright Office rejected his requests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Epic in new Fortnite lawsuit over allegedly stealing viral video dance Fortnite developer Epic Games has become embroiled in another lawsuit relating to the battle royale\u2019s dancing emotes, this time relating to the Halloween-themed \u201cPump It Up\u201d emote, based on a 2006 viral video. On October 30, Matthew Geiler, who has become known as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}