Legal updates and opinions
News / News
Fortnite, Wimbeldon And Tour De France
By Donvay Wegierski, Director
Fanatic or not we will all be familiar with the above, each comprising sport in its own shape and form. Interestingly though the prize money in Epic Game’s Fortnite World Cup 2018/2019 is said to be around US$3.000.000 and tops the major sporting events* prize money being higher than that of Wimbeldon (US$2.980.000), Tour De France (US$580.000), The Indy 500 (US$2530.000), and The Masters (US$1.980.000).
Although Fornite is available to anyone in free-to-play mode a player can either earn or simply buy V-Bucks which is the sale of virtual goodies in the game including costumes, stickers and dance moves. The exact value of these sales is unknown though estimated at US$two billion annually.
With this monetisation, it is no surprise that celebrities including Alfonso Ribeiro better known as Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Brooklyn Rapper 2 Milly and Instagram’s Backpack Kid have pursued copyright infringement proceedings in relation to some of the dance moves in Fornite. This has raised the question whether you can own the copyright in dance moves. For copyright to subsist in a work, the work should be original and in a material form which in this instance could include texted choreography and video recordings so as to show where the dance originates from.
Latest News
The union doth protest too much: NUMSA v BMW and the limits of court intervention in disciplinary proceedings
by Bradley Workman-Davies, Director The Labour Court’s judgment in NUMSA on behalf of Members v BMW (SA) (Pty) Ltd is [...]
Evaluating the public interest effects of a merger: The Competition Appeal Court charts the course
by Paul Coetser, Director and Head of Competition and Kwanele Diniso, Associate When evaluating a merger, the Competition Act 89 [...]
What makes the “Best” mobile network? A South African perspective
by Ahmore Burger-Smidt, Director and Head of Regulatory Choosing the “best” mobile network depends on multiple factors. In practice, it [...]
South African Competition Commission’s Draft Guidelines on Minority Shareholder Protections: what businesses need to know
by Ahmore Burger-Smidt, Director and Head of Regulatory The Competition Commission has published Draft Guidelines on Minority Shareholder Protections for [...]
COMESA publishes important new Competition Regulations
by Paul Coetser, Director and Head of Competition and Raisah Mahomed, Associate The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa [...]
Supreme Court of Appeal clarifies boundaries between casino and bookmaker licences in the Gauteng province
by Wendy Rosenberg - Director, Tebogo Sibidla - Director and Nothando Madondo - Associate In recent years, the number of [...]

