Die Kläger Jaylen Brantley und Jared Nickens haben 2019 EPIC verklagte, da diese angeblich rechtswidrig den den Tanz Running Man“ im Spiel Fortnite verwendet haben sollen. Die Kläger behaupten, dass Epic Games absichtlich die Bewegungen des „Running Man“-Tanzes kopiert haben und als Feature des äußerst beliebten Online-Videospiels Fortnite übernommen haben.
Link zum Dokument Memorandum Opinion and Order des District Court Maryland
Das Gericht hat in dem Verfahren die Entscheidung zu treffen, ob es sich bei dem Tanz um ein urheberrechtliche geschütztes Werk der Tanzkunst handelt oder um einen nicht geschützten einfachen Tanz. In der ebenfalls wegen eines Tanzes in Fortnite ergangenen Entscheidung „Pellegrino v. Epic Games“ hatte das Gericht der District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsyvania hierzu ausgeführt:
„At issue therefore is whether dance falls within the subject matter of copyright.
We conclude that it does. Specifically, we find that dance falls within the ambit
of the copyright category “choreographic works.” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a)(4).
Although “the term choreography is not synonymous with dance,” the U.S.
Copyright Office, Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices (3rd ed. 2017)
(the “Compendium”), defines choreography as a “subset of dance [because] a
work of authorship cannot be registered as a choreographic work unless it is
comprised of dance steps, dance movements, and/or dance patterns.” Id. §
805.5(B)(3); see also id. § 805.5(B) (“The dividing line between copyrightable
choreography and uncopyrightable dance is a continuum, rather than a bright
line.”). In fact, to register a claim to copyright in a choreographic work, the U.S.
Copyright Office requires that “the [proposed] work is a dance.” Id. § 805.4. We
therefore conclude that the Signature Move, which is alleged to be a dance, is the
appropriate subject matter of copyright law in satisfaction of the first prong of the
test for copyright preemption.
Pellegrino v. Epic Games, Inc., No. CV 19-1806, 2020 WL 1531867, at *8 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 31,
2020).
