The copyright terrorists are back.
Richard Silver “invented” the Electric Slide (yes, the dance) in 1976. He copyrighted it in 2004. I didn’t even know you could copyright a dance, but apparently you can. It’s the “choreography” that’s copyright-able, and he claims that anyone who performs the Electric Slide in public owes him money for using the moves. Moreover, he’s on a crusade to sue people who do the dance incorrectly, saying they’re infringing as well.
Apparently several dancers performed the Electric Slide on the Ellen Degeneres Show last year, so Richard is suing the show. He’s also threatening everyone on YouTube who’s uploaded any form of the Electric Slide in a video. Did you have the dance at your wedding and post it to the web? Then you’re in trouble, in his book, especially if you’re not doing it right.
His ammunition for all of this is the fabulous DMCA, which is second only to the Military Commissions Act of last year in terms of Worst Legislation Ever. Here we see again how stupid these copyright laws can be.
As an interesting and sort of humorous side note, Richard says the only actor he’s seen do the Electric Slide correctly is Joe Pesci. Go figure.