Alfonso Ribeiro of “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Fame Has Just Sued Epic Games
You may be aware that Epic Games has been embroiled in a number of sticky situations lately involving copyright claims. Two weeks ago, we reported that rapper 2 Milly is suing Epic Games for turning his “Milly Rock” dance into the “Swipe It” emote without his permission. Now, Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, is suing Epic Games for stealing his moves.
Alfonso Ribeiro is Taking Epic Games to Court
TMZ reported that Ribeiro has already filed a suit against Epic Games. The reason he is taking issue concerns the “Fresh” emote, which is based on his famous Carlton Dance from the show.
Ribeiro is not just going after Epic Games. He also is taking action against 2K Games, once again for making use of the Carlton Dance without his permission.
Further, TMZ quoted Ribeiro’s attorney as stating, “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 … 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.”
Epic Games has not provided any comment on the matter of the lawsuit, as is company policy. Will Ribeiro win his case? At this point, no one can be sure. There is little in the way of precedent for establishing the legal status of dance moves when it comes to issues of copyrights. Cases like this one will probably set that precedent. Keep up with our Fortnite news for future updates.