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
SARS: Misrepresenting Misrepresentation
As every taxpayer knows, SARS has extremely wide powers under the various fiscal Acts to enforce and collect tax. [...]
Changes to the tax treatment of trust income awarded to foreign beneficiaries on the horizon
Currently, income that arises in a South African trust which is awarded to a foreign beneficiary during the same [...]
What exactly are the duties and responsibilities of the mining right holder in the retrenchment process in the mining industry?
In Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union v Buffalo Coal Dundee (pty) Ltd & another ("Buffalo Coal"), the Labour [...]
Section 11 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act
In terms of section 11(1) of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 ("MPRDA") - "A prospecting [...]
The unrealised transformative potential of preferent community mining rights
and Siphamandla Dhlamini, Candidate Attorney The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act No. 28 of 2002 ("MPRDA") was enacted with [...]
Private companies and the new transparency provisions of the Companies Act
The Companies Act No 71 of 2008 ("Act") was amended on 1 April 2023 with the purpose of increasing corporate [...]

