A Louisville writer and businessman has filed a lawsuit claiming New York film director Spike Lee illegally used his script for a Showtime pilot.

The director of "Do the Right Thing" has done him wrong, according to James Lee White, the owner of a commercial cleaning service and a hip-hop recording business.

"This is not how America works," White said in a telephone interview. "You just can't take people's work. It's not good."

White's lawsuit also names the Showtime cable network and its corporate owner, CBS Viacom, as defendants. The case, filed Jan. 2 in U.S. District Court — Western District of Kentucky — alleges that director Shelton J. "Spike" Lee willfully infringed on White's copyrighted script titled "Mixed Up."

Claims in a lawsuit give only one side of the case. No one answered several calls to Lee's production company in Brooklyn.

The "Mixed Up" script, which White registered with the Writers Guild of America in April 2002, follows three key characters whose worlds intersect: a smart street hustler, a corporate man and a Mafia heavy. The plot involves a theft that results in a death and, ultimately, the redemption of the street hustler.

White, 33, claims that Lee's "Sucker Free City," screened at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival and aired on Showtime, contains more than 85 similarities to his "Mixed Up" script. White alleges that Lee and screenwriter Alex Tse created "Sucker Free City" within two months after White submitted his "Mixed Up" script to Lee's film production company for consideration in July 2002.