Copyright, Plagiarism and Choreography
Last week, Choreographer and dancer Courtney Ortiz shared a video on her Instagram accusing Spanish dance teacher Enric Marimon of plagiarizing her routine. Specifically, she claimed the instructor copied her routine to the Abba song Voulez-Vous.
The video went viral, receiving over 200,000 likes and over 5,000 comments. According to an article by Lauren Wingernroth at Dance Magazine, Ortiz then learned that Marimon copied three other pieces of her choreography and works from seven other choreographers.
Marimon, for his part, initially posted two apologies for his action, one in Spanish and the other in English. However, that didn’t seem to calm things for him, prompting him to set all his accounts to private. He also deleted the videos from his YouTube account.
While that seems to be the end of this story, the case highlights how dance and choreography occupy a very unusual space in both the copyright and plagiarism landscape. The legal and ethical issues around choreography are unlike any other art form.
As such, it’s worth exploring both why Marimon’s actions were seen as unethical and how the protection of choreography is changing.
Copyright and Choreography
Update/Correction: The paragraphs below indicate that no choreography had been registered with the USCO until 2021. However, there were many different registrations for choreographic works before then. The Variety article linked/cited below is where that information came from. I am still trying to glean if Variety’s information was bad or if I misinterpreted it. Either way, choreographic work HAD been registered (somewhat regularly) before then. A big thanks to both people who pointed this out.
In the United States, choreography has technically been protected by copyright since the Copyright Act of 1976 took effect in 1978. However, enforcing that protection has proved nearly impossible.
The first person to successfully register a choreography routine with the US Copyright Office did so in 2021. That represents a 40-plus-year gap between choreography being eligible for protection and choreography receiving a single copyright registration.
The person who filed that registration, Jaquel Knight, created many popular routines, including ones used by Beyonce, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B. After securing the registration, he then founded Knight Choreography and Music Publishing Inc. to help others do the same.
Since then, there has been an explosion of litigation in this space. However, most of it has not been directed at other choreographers. Instead, it’s been directed at companies using dance routines in other media.
A major target has been Epic Games, which has been repeatedly sued over dances used in Fortnite. Choreographer Kyle Hanagami filed what turned out to be the most important lawsuit against them.
Hanagami claimed that Epic used a routine he created without permission. The lower court tossed the case, saying that the routine was simply a series of unprotectable poses. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived the case, saying that, while poses can’t be copyright protected, the routine itself can.
The decision was a major win for choreographers. The two sides later settled the case.
In short, over the past three years, choreography has made major strides toward practical copyright protection. However, this is still a very new space, and there simply aren’t many decisions to indicate the boundaries of that protection.
As such, this will be a space to watch for a long time coming.
Plagiarism and Choreography
Though choreography has technically enjoyed copyright protection for over 40 years, it’s only in the last three that protection has become meaningful in the United States. As such, for most of recent history, enforcement of choreography has been more about community standards and norms than legal action.
To that end, choreography was similar to recipes, fashion, fan fiction and stand-up comedy. These are all extremely creative areas where copyright protection is either limited or non-existent. Instead, they often rely on community enforcement of norms and practices.
Interestingly, Ortiz’s story is an excellent example of that kind of enforcement. Ortiz didn’t threaten litigation, and she didn’t even mention copyright. Instead, she said she wanted to vent her frustrations and asked others to share the story.
Ultimately, it was the most effective way for Ortiz to address the issue.
In short, the choreography community agrees that this is inappropriate and an ethical violation. They agree that, at the very least, Marimon should have clearly credited Ortiz. This sense of giving credit where it is due is very strong in the choreography community, even if it isn’t a major component of copyright.
Choreographers understand that others will copy, alter and build upon their routines. However, they still highly value acknowledgment and credit. It’s a big part of how choreographers build their brand and reputation.
Ultimately, Marimon’s biggest sin was not using the choreography in a paid class but failing to give Ortiz even the smallest shred of credit. That, however, is at odds with copyright, which focuses on protecting the commercial interest in a work.
That may be setting up some greater conflicts down the line.
Bottom Line
From a copyright standpoint, choreography is still fairly new. Though it’s literally one of the oldest forms of expression, it’s only been part of the copyright conversation for the past three years.
The courts are still sorting out the boundaries of copyright protection for choreography. It will likely be many decades before we have a remotely clear picture.
However, like many other creative communities, the choreographers have established their own boundaries of appropriate behavior. Similarly, they work together to address any infractions of that code.
But that’s what makes choreography unique. For most of its recent history, choreography has relied on that code to enforce its rules. However, now that it’s getting effective copyright protection, that code may clash with copyright law.
Right now, this isn’t much of an issue. Legal cases involving choreography have been targeted outside the industry, but that is not likely to last.
It will be interesting to see the rules change for choreographers as copyright plays an increasingly large role in enforcing what is and is not acceptable use of choreographic works.
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