Richard Silver claims that he invented the Electric Slide dance for a disco club in 1976. But rather than being the guy that just says, "Hey, I invented that dance!"... he's the guy saying, "Hey, I invented that dance and you owe me money for performing it!" Thirty years after creating his piece of choreographed genius, Silver is fighting anyone he finds doing the dance wrong... or publicly performing the dance without his consent.
Silver is using Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints to request that any Electric Slide videos he finds on YouTube be removed. Additionally, he is seeking compensation from The Ellen DeGeneres Show for a performance of the dance on her show in February 2006.
He is very serious about the dance, both as a copyrighted work and as an important work of art for future generations.
Read some interesting Silver quotes after the jump (and watch him dance)...
cNet News reports that, on a YouTube page created by Silver which shows proper performance of the dance, the creator says, "Any video that shows my choreography being done incorrectly is beingremoved. I don't want future generations having to learn it wrong andthen relearn it as I am being faced with now because of certain sitesand (people) that have been teaching it incorrectly and without mypermission. That's the reason I (copyrighted) it in the first place."
It's not clear what he cares about more, the copyright or the preservation of the dance. Either way, it's a pretty interesting, but legitimate, use of copyrights.
