Fortnite Tries to Dismiss 2 Milly's Lawsuit by Explaining How Dancing Works

In more lighthearted news, you might recall how late last year rapper 2 Milly decided to sue Epic Games for their “Swipe It” emote, which he claims was directly ripped off his own dance style. He wasn’t the only one to sue over a dance, several other people have attempted to do the same, but he’s also the biggest and most famous of the people trying to sue Fortnite and frankly, that makes it a lot easier to make fun of him, so here we are.

Anyhoo. Epic Games has just moved to dismiss his lawsuit against them, citing the fact that “no one can own a dance step” and that Fortnite’s “Swipe It” emote isn’t actually copying anyone.

The first part is a pretty obvious argument, as dances are expressions of speech and emotion and no one can really own them:

"Plaintiff’s lawsuit is fundamentally at odds with free speech principles as it attempts to impose liability, and thereby chill creative expression, by claiming rights that do not exist under the law. No one can own a dance step. Copyright law is clear that individual dance steps and simple dance routines are not protected by copyright, but rather are building blocks of free expression…”

However, it's the second part of the argument that gets a little funny, as that’s when they start detailing the exact motion of the dance and the emotes in perfect legalese to illustrate exactly how different they actually are:

"The Dance Step consists of a side step to the right while swinging the left arm horizontally across the chest to the right, and the reversing the same movement on the other side. By contrast … Swipe It consists of (1) varying arm movements, sometimes using a straight, horizontal arc across the chest, and other times starting below the hips and then traveling in a diagonal arc across the body, up to the shoulder, while pivoting side to side on the balls and heels of the feet, (2) a wind up of the right arm before swiping, and (3) a rolling motion of the hands and forearms between swipes.

Moreover, whereas the torso, shoulders, and head face forward while the ribs move side-to-side in the Dance Step, the torso, shoulders, and head turn to the side while the ribs remain in place in Swipe It. The Dance Step is also performed at a significantly quicker tempo than Swipe It.”

See, that just made my day. We should have lawyers fight over dance moves more often. If it actually results in the court dismissing the case, however, we have yet to see.