The Electric Slide is now a Creative Commons licensed dance.

Just how the iconic line dance came to be governed by that Internet-friendly license starts with a video of a software engineer and his friends having a go at the ’70s moves.

In February, Richard Silver, the creator of the dance, persuaded YouTube to remove the video, which the San Francisco engineer shot at a recent convention.

Shocked by the takedown notice by Silver–which was based on a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim–the engineer, Kyle Machulis, turned to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which quickly adopted his cause.

The argument: that the video contained nothing but noncommercial footage of the dance moves, and should therefore be fair use. The EFF quickly filed a lawsuit against Silver on Machulis’ behalf.

And while experts said that it’s possible to copyright choreography, few thought Silver could prevail in cases of noncommercial use.

On May 22, Silver and the EFF announced that they had come to an arrangement: the EFF agreed to drop its lawsuit, and in return, Silver said he would no longer pursue DMCA claims against anyone portraying his dance steps in a noncommercial manner.

Further, the parties agreed that from that point on, the Electric Slide would be protected under a Creative Commons license granting full noncommercial use rights to anyone wanting to shoot and post video of the dance.
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This then goes on to an interview with Silver and his lawyer. But this quote is just amazing:

Richard Silver: Yeah, my choreography was 22 steps because my birthday is January 22. I wanted something that was uniquely mine, and so I created a dance with 22 steps. And the dances that are being portrayed on YouTube and MySpace and wherever are doing an 18-step dance instead of a 22-step dance. I fought for the last 28 years trying to get it not done as an 18-step dance, and now with all this being presented on the Internet, I had a problem with it.

I never knew the Electric Slide was 22 steps. Or 18. Or anything really, because it is the Electric Slide. But damn it, this man invented it and has spent the last 28 years demanding it be done right. Is that too much to ask?

Yup.