Monday, March 18, 2024

‘Real World’ OG Kevin Powell Files Copyright Lawsuit Over ‘All Eyez On Me’

Writer and activist Kevin Powell speaks during The Monumental 5 Press Conference on the steps of New York City Hall on July 5, 2011 in New York City.
Writer and activist Kevin Powell speaks during The Monumental 5 Press Conference on the steps of New York City Hall on July 5, 2011 in New York City.

*Writer and “Real World” OG Kevin Powell has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Lionsgate, Morgan Creek Productions and others over “All Eyez on Me,” alleging that the film infringes on a series of articles he wrote about Tupac Shakur for Vibe magazine in the 1990s.

The suit points to a June interview given by “All Eyez on Me” producer L.T. Hutton, in which Hutton allegedly stated that “all of the interviews” of Tupac were used to make the film, reports The Wrap.

It also alleges a number of similarities between Powell’s articles and the film, including that both works center around “Tupac Shakur’s duplicative identity as a progeny of the civil rights revolution era and a contemporary of the gangsta rap era and the subsequent attempts on his life and livelihood by shady characters and government officials.”

Lionsgate/Summit
Lionsgate/Summit

According to the lawsuit, the film “also features a fictional character named Nigel, based on a real person named Jacques ‘Haitian Jack’ Agnant,” and that the film “features details of Nigel and Tupac’s relationship that have not been published by anyone else but Plaintiff.”

“In fact, the name and character of ‘Nigel’ in the Original Work was specifically created by the Plaintiff without the authority or encouragement of Tupac Shakur. This made up character of Nigel was the embellishment of a real life character that was central to the narrative in Plaintiff’s articles,” the lawsuit states. “This made up character was copied and pasted into Defendant’s film to play the same central character and role in the Infringing Work as he did in the Original Work.”

Powell seeks an injunction against the film’s further release, as well as unspecified damages.

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