TikTok content material creator Kelley Heyer sued the online game Roblox for utilizing her dance to Charli XCX’s “Apple” with out permission.
Heyer posted the viral dance in June 2024, which fed off of the hype of Charli XCX’s hit summer time album Brat. The dance grew to become so fashionable that Charli XCX integrated it into her dwell present and even invited Heyer to carry out the dance at her present in New York Metropolis.
Fortnite and Roblox, two blockbuster video games fashionable amongst kids, every integrated the dance into their video games, permitting gamers to buy “emotes” of the dance for his or her avatars to carry out. However whereas Fortnite obtained Heyer’s permission to license her choreography, she alleges that Roblox didn’t signal an settlement to take action.
In line with Polygon, Heyer estimates that Roblox earned over $123,000 from promoting over 60,000 emotes of the “Apple” dance.
“As a platform powered by a neighborhood of creators, Roblox takes the safety of mental property very severely and is dedicated to defending mental property rights of impartial builders and creators to manufacturers and artists each on and off the platform,” Roblox mentioned in a press release.