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 COMESA Competition Commission’s increasing emphasis on competition enforcement and conduct cases
The COMESA Competition Commission 1. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) covers 21 countries namely Burundi, the [...]
“I will never get caught”: The consequences of non-compliance with POPIA
Non-compliance with POPIA With the attention on complying with the Protection of Personal of Personal Information Act No. 4 of [...]
Obtaining authorisation to process special personal information demystified
1. Processing of Special Personal Information On 28 June 2021, the Information Regulator published its "Guidance Note on Processing of [...]
Eye spy with my little eye… Template PAIA Manuals published by the Information Regulator
Updated PAIA Manual templates for private bodies To kick off the beginning of Access to Information month, the Information Regulator [...]
JSE efforts to reduce red tape in Section 9 of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Listing Requirements: Part 2
Johannesburg Stock Exchange Listing On 5 March 2021, the Issuer Regulation Division of the JSE issued a Market Notice on [...]
Kenya introduces Anti-Counterfeiting (Recordation) Regulations, 2021
Kenya's Anti-Counterfeit (Recordation) Regulations 2021 Kenya's Anti-Counterfeit (Recordation) Regulations 2021 requires Intellectual Property rights ("IPR") owners who import goods into [...]

