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
Property buyers may be liable for historical debt
In a recent judgement handed down by the Supreme Court of Appeal, the court ruled that a hypothec created by [...]
Remuneration of employees in different provinces
Duma v Minister of Correctional Services & others ISSUE Whether the failure to pay an employee in one [...]
Non-striking employees not to be locked out: limitations of the employer’s right to lock out
Transport and Allied Workers Union of South Africa v PUTCO Limited [2016] ZACC On 8 March 2016, in the [...]
Criminalisation of cartels: a potential cure with side effects
Competition authorities particularly in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia have enacted and entrenched criminal penalties for cartel behaviour. [...]
How to compensate the victims of collusion
In the sphere of competition law, anti-competitive practices can have a detrimental effect on an economy and the performances of [...]
The potential for competition law enforcement to revive and promote faster economic growth in South Africa
On 2 February 2016, the World Bank released its annual economic update report, titled “South Africa Economic Update, Promoting Faster [...]

