{"id":5376,"date":"2025-04-19T04:29:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T04:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/charli-xcx-apple-dance-sparks-copyright-lawsuit-against-roblox\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T04:29:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T04:29:45","slug":"charli-xcx-apple-dance-sparks-copyright-lawsuit-against-roblox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/charli-xcx-apple-dance-sparks-copyright-lawsuit-against-roblox\/","title":{"rendered":"Charli XCX ‘Apple Dance’ Sparks Copyright Lawsuit Against Roblox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tA<\/span> TikTok user who says she created the viral \u201cApple dance\u201d to a Charli XCX<\/a> song is suing Roblox over allegations that the company violated copyright law by selling her dance moves as an \u201cemote.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles federal court, Kelley Heyer<\/strong> says the online game platform used the dance \u2013 a viral sensation set to Charli\u2019s \u201cApple\u201d that was emulated by scores of celebrities and influencers \u2013 in a version of its \u201cDress To Impress\u201d game that featured the singer Brat<\/em> singer.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Roblox allegedly reached out to negotiate a license, Heyer says the talks never led to a deal \u2013 and that the company simply used her dance moves without permission.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRoblox proudly advertises that its platform allows creators to \u2018create, scale and monetize,\u2019\u201d her lawyers write. \u201cYet, it has prevented Ms. Heyer from the crucial monetization of her work on the \u00a0Roblox platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCharli XCX is not named in the lawsuit nor accused of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\n\tNumerous copyright lawsuits have been filed in recent years over viral dance moves featured in online video games. Alfonso Ribeiro<\/strong>, who played Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/em>, sued Fortnite owner Epic Games over the use of his heavily-memed \u201cCarlton dance\u201d as an emote, as did the mother of Russell Horning<\/strong>, the so-called Backpack Kid<\/a> who helped popularize the viral \u201cFloss\u201d dance.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor years, those cases faced skeptical judges who questioned whether simple dance moves were covered by copyright law. In 2020, a federal judge sided with Epic and tossed out a case filed by two former college basketball players over their \u201crunning man\u201d dance. But in 2023 a federal appeals court issued a first-of-its-kind ruling reviving such a lawsuit against Epic Games, in which a panel of judges said they \u201csee no reason to treat choreography differently\u201d from longer dance routines.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her lawsuit, Heyer says her dance was clearly protected by copyright law \u2013 and that Epic and Netflix have both struck licensing deals with her to use it. She says Roblox earned $123,000 in sales from selling the dance to users, but has refused to pay her any of it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRoblox has substantially benefitted and profited from its unlawful infringement of Ms. Heyer\u2019s copyright and other uninvited misappropriations of Ms. Heyer\u2019s intellectual property and proprietary rights in the Apple Dance,\u201d her lawyers write.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement responding to the lawsuit, Roblox denied any wrongdoing: \u201cRoblox takes the protection of intellectual property very seriously and is committed to protecting intellectual property rights of independent developers and creators to brands and artists both on and off the platform,\u201d the company said. \u201cRoblox is confident in its position and the propriety of its dealings in this matter and looks forward to responding in court.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A TikTok user who says she created the viral \u201cApple dance\u201d to a Charli XCX song is suing Roblox over allegations that the company violated copyright law by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[464,5573,429,4353,303,5575,3315,5574],"class_list":["post-5376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-apple","tag-charli","tag-copyright","tag-dance","tag-lawsuit","tag-roblox","tag-sparks","tag-xcx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}