Daryl Murphy's Lawsuit Against Eddie Murphy

In 2004, Daryl Murphy flied a fraud lawsuit against Eddie Murphy Productions, Incorporated claiming that original content found in his copyrighted documentary had been used to create the animated television show, the PJs. Airing in 1999, the television show is set in the housing projects of an unnamed city and follows main character Thurgood Stubbs, chief superintendent, along with his family through out their daily lives. Murphy claims, “the defendants used copyrighted material from [my] videotape to create and later broadcast the animated television show” (). Murphy’s original work documented life in the projects of Chicago and similarly followed a janitorial worker through his every day life. In addition, several other similarities were drawn in relation to characters in the show. For example, the Plaintiff believed characters like Mrs. Avery, Mrs. Mambo Garcelle (Haiti Lady), Smokey and Juicy were born

When he submitted the piece he requested it to be sent out to fellow Hollywood names, like Spike Lee. He believes this is where the Production Company got ahold of his content and from it, developed the PJs. However, at the time of the court ruling there had been no confirmation that the Oprah Winfrey Show had passed on the content (). In judgment, Murphy submitted videos that he had created to juxtapose against videos of the PJs to prove his argument. After viewing the tapes, the court ruled in favor of the defendants on three grounds “(1) the two works were not substantially similar; (2) there was no evidence that the defendants had access to the videotape; and (3) there was uncontradicted evidence of prior creation” (). We may never know if the creators of the PJs were inspired from Murphy’s documentary, but even if they were, the similarities were not there enough to prove any form of copyright