3 Count: Dance Dance Lawsuit

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1: Epic Games Hit with Another Lawsuit Over Fortnite Dance Moves

First off today, Austen Goslin at Polygon reports that choreographer Kyle Hanagami has filed a lawsuit against Epic Games alleging that the video game company copied his choreography for an emote in the game Fortnite.

According to the lawsuit, Hanagami created and received a copyright registration for a dance he choreographed to Charlie Puth’s song How Long. However, he claims that his moves were copied by Epic Games for their It’s Complicated emote in their popular game Fortnite. In a side-by-side video, the moves do appear to be similar, and the game’s unofficial wiki claimed that the emote was based on Hanagami’s work.

Hanagami is asking the court for an injunction to prevent Epic from using the dance any further, and is seeking unspecified damages.

2: Producer Goes After Firms Illegally Helping Stream Israeli Content Abroad

Next up today, Hannah Brown at The Jerusalem Post reports that the chairperson of Screen IL, a company that streams Israeli content around the world, has teamed up with various Israeli content creation companies to target Visa and Mastercard for their alleged support of pirated sites.

The companies have joined together to tackle a series of sites that stream Israeli content illegally. The MPAA is taking action against the sites directly, but the Israeli companies are targeting their payment processors, Visa and Mastercard.

According to a letter they have written, the companies know that the sites are engaged in illegal streaming and are calling on the companies to cease working with the sites as well as others that engage in piracy.

3: BBB Warns of Instagram Account Scam Through Fake Copyright Email

Finally today, Jennifer Bullock at WCMH reports that the Better Business Bureau is warning Instagram users of a scam that aims to obtain login information for users’ accounts.

The scam works by sending users a “legitimate looking” email that purports to be from Instagram and informing users that there was a copyright violation on their account. However, when users click the email to address the issue, they are actually entering their username and password on a fake site, giving the information to the scammer.

Though such scams have been common in the past, this one adds a new wrinkle by also asking users to verify their email address. This gives the scammers access to the user’s email as well as their Instagram account. As such, the BBB is advising consumers to be wary of such emails, check who the email is from and never click links contained in emails.

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