Celebrity
Alfonso Ribeiro Sues ‘Fortnite’ For Allegedly Swiping His Carlton Dance
Alfonso Ribeiro has joined the list of celebrities and artist calling out the famous video game ‘FORTNITE’. The video game has been catching major heat for taking popular dances without crediting the originators , and now Alfonso is coming for some of their coins. Alfonso Ribeiro, who famously played Carlton Banks in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, is suing Fortnite for allegedly stealing his infamous “Carlton dance.”
Ribeiro says the “Fresh emote” dance done by characters in the video game is a complete rip-off of his swaggy moves from the 90s sitcom.
“Epic has earned record profits off of downloadable content in the game, including emotes like ‘Fresh,’” attorney David Hecht said to NBC. “Yet Epic has failed to compensate or even ask permission from Mr. Ribeiro for the use of his likeness and iconic intellectual property.”
Ribeiro is not the first to come after Fortnite for allegedly swiping trendy moves. 2 Milly also sued Epic Games for allegedly stealing his popular “Milly Rock” dance. He claimed Epic Games allowed players to purchase a dance called “Swipe It,” which was close to identical to the Milly Rock. Fortnite, which is an online battle game, has over 200 million users. Players can purchase and download moves that their video characters can then perform in front of other competitors.
Chance the Rapper called the game out back in July, saying they were profiting off of the hip hop community’s creative genius.
“Black creatives created and popularized these dances but never monetized them,” he posted on Twitter. “Imagine the money people are spending on these Emotes being shared with the artists that made them.”
Backpack Kid who created the mega-popular “Floss” dance acknowledged that Fortnite used his dance in their game, but he didn’t seem too upset. He did a YouTube video about it and everything. There’s no word if he’s getting compensated for his moves. Backpack Kid’s mom filed a lawsuit on the 16-year-old’s behalf claiming the video game ripped off his “Floss” dance. He’s also suing 2K Sports, which makes NBA 2K, saying they also stole his popular dance.