The Boston Herald reported, a Boston postal worker and former art student, Timothy McGee, is claiming “characters, artwork, storylines [and] concepts” were stolen from a show he proposed nearly ten years ago titled The Music Factory of the 90’s.
The suit says Andre “3000” Benjamin of Outkast“was credited with the creation, executive production and starring role in ‘Class of 3000,'” which aligned very closely to the themes previously detailed by McGee in The Music Factory. The suit also states the allegedly stolen characters included “a tough full-of-attitude female executive, a young techno-whiz sound engineer, [and] a talented young Asian singer and a central energetic young singer/rapper,” were nearly duplicated.
In 1997, McGee, suggested Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds host the show, and sent in a proposal to Michael Lazzo, who was VP of programming for the Cartoon Network at the time. The proposal was for a show which chronicled aspiring musicians attempting to burst onto the Atlanta Music scene. McGee points to 2006, when Cartoon Network first aired Class of 3000, as the basis for his suit, which contends, “The similarities between the expression of Mr. McGee‘s work in ‘The Music Factory’ and that of ‘Class of 3000’ are sufficiently detailed and pervasive.”
Although Dre‘s Emmy Award-winning show was canceled in 2007, due to budget problems, McGee’s attorney, Jerrold Neeff, believes copyright infringement, breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets occurred. He is requesting damages including but not limited to all the profits from the show, legal fees and “whatever this court may deem additionally just and proper.”
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“We’ve requested $2 million in damages thus far…The rest remains to be seen,”Neeff said.
Andre 3000 could not be reached and a representative from Cartoon Network told the Herald the network is aware of the suit, but gave no comment.
Reported by Benjamin Chesna.
