Orange Shirt Kid Mother Sues Epic Games For Fortnite Emote
By Nicholas Barth ·
The mother of the Orange Shirt Kid who was the inspiration behind the Orange Justice Fortnite emote is now suing Epic Games for their use of the dance.
A few seasons ago saw Epic Games run the Boogie Down contest that allowed fans to submit their own dance moves for a chance to win and have their dance be added to Fortnite Battle Royale as an emote. One of these contestants was the Orange Shirt Kid whose Boogie Down submission became a community favorite. While the submission of the Orange Shirt Kid did not win the Fortnite Boogie Down contest, fan support led the way for Epic Games to include the dance of the Orange Shirt Kid in the Season 4 Fortnite Battle Pass in the form of the Orange Justice emote.
However, Rachel McCumbers, the mother of the Orange Shirt Kid, is now suing Epic Games for their use of the Orange Justice emote. This lawsuit joins a long line of recent legal action taken against Epic Games by individuals who claim that their dances that have been used as emotes in Fortnite and have secured a great deal of profits while being added to the battle royale title without their permission.
Orange Shirt Kid Mother Sues Over Fortnite
The lawsuit filed by Rachel McCumbers claims that her son "exploded in popularity in or around early 2018, after he made a video of himself performing" the dance that would eventually become an emote in the game's Season 4 Battle Pass.
This lawsuit, however, does not make any mention of the Boogie Down contest that her son entered the dance into that resulted in his dance being made into an emote for Fortnite. It would not be shocking to see Epic Games use the Fortnite Boogie Down Contest as a very strong defense to the legal action that the mother of the Orange Shirt Kid has taken against the developer.
In addition to the mentioning of her child's rise in popularity because of his viral dance, McCumbers claims that her son was the subject of extreme cyberbullying because of the situation and in turn deleted his various social media accounts.
You can find the find the lawsuit filed against Epic Games by the mother of the Orange Shirt Kid below courtesy of Variety.
Orange Shirt Kid Versus Epi... by on Scribd
It remains to be seen whether or not the mother of the Orange Shirt Kid will be able to achieve a victory in court with her lawsuit over the use of her son's dance as an emote in Fortnite. However, this development likely means that we could possibly be seeing many more of these kinds of situations arise in the future, as they have so far in recent months.
(cover photo courtesy of BETA)