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Fresh Prince Star Alfonso Ribeiro Sues Fortnite for Stealing Carlton Dance
He's also taking on NBA 2K for jacking his trademark moves
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Airstar Alfonso Ribeiro is taking on the popular video games Fortnite and NBA 2K for stealing his trademark moves.
The actor has filed lawsuits against Fortnite developer Epic Games Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the company behind NBA 2K, for using his famous "Carlton Dance" in their respective games without his expressed permission, TV Guide has confirmed. The suit accuses both companies of unfairly profiting from his image. Ribeiro has requested compensation for their use of his intellectual property and that both games stop using the dance altogether. The suit also revealed that Ribeiro is in the process of copyrighting the dance.
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In January 2018, Fortnite added an emote option titled "Fresh" which allows characters in the game to perform moves similar to Ribeiro's. See for yourself in the side-by-side below:
Ribeiro made the delightful moves, a boisterous arm-swinging motion known as the Carlton dance, famous during his time on Fresh Prince and the memorable dance has been associated with him ever since. "Twenty-seven years later, The Dance remains distinctive, immediately recognizable, and inextricably linked to Ribeiro's identity, celebrity, and likeness," the lawsuits read, per CNN.
Ribeiro is the latest to accuse Fortnite of stealing viral dance moves. 16-year-old Ryan "Backpack Kid" Huggins is also suing the game for using his "Floss" dance and Brooklyn rapper 2 Milly announced his plans to pursue legal action for Fortnite's use of his "Milly Rock." The recent lawsuits have opened up a debate of whether or not the games should compensate artists for creative use of their popularized moves.
A representative for Epic Games has told TV Guide they don't comment on ongoing litigation and a representative for Take-Two Interactive was not immediately available for comment.
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