Friday, April 07, 2006

Brown, Publisher Win `Da Vinci Code’ Plagiarism Suit

Brown, Publisher Win `Da Vinci Code’ Plagiarism Suit

April 7 (Bloomberg)—Dan Brown has been cleared of allegations he plagiarized the plot of his international bestseller ``The Da Vinci Code’’ from an earlier work.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors of the non- fiction ``The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,’’ sued Brown’s publisher Random House Inc. in London for copyright infringement. They claimed the author made millions from their theories that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child, spawning a royal dynasty.

Justice Peter Smith at the High Court in London today rejected their case, saying that the authors’ ideas were ``too general’’ to be protected under U.K. copyright law and that their book didn’t have one central storyline.

The decision ends the threat that the lawsuit would delay the release of the film version of ``The Da Vinci Code,’’ which is due to open worldwide on May 19, starring Tom Hanks. The tale of religion, murder and mystery, which currently sits atop the New York Times fiction bestseller list, has sold more than 40 million copies.

``Today’s verdict shows that this claim was utterly without merit,’’ Brown said in a statement. ``A novelist must be free to draw appropriately from historical works without fear that he’ll be sued and forced to stand in a courtroom facing a series of allegations that call into question his very integrity as a person.’’

The plagiarism case, which opened on Feb. 27, drew packed courtrooms for three weeks in London. The New Hampshire-based author spent three days on the witness stand defending ``The Da Vinci Code,’’ providing a detailed account of his writing and research process and even his personal fitness regime.

Baigent and Leigh’s allegations centered on 15 plot points common to both books, including the final resting place of the Holy Grail and the idea that Jesus’s royal progeny were guarded by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, whose ``grand masters’’ have included Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. ``The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail’’ was published in 1982, more than 20 years before ``The Da Vinci Code.’’

Brown claimed there were critical differences between the two books and that the ideas explored in his thriller have been debated for centuries.

``The ruling is excellent news for genre authors the world over,’’ said Thomas Hays, an intellectual property lawyer at London-based law firm Lewis Silkin. ``This judgment reaffirms an author’s right and freedom to work within the bounds of established forms,’’ he said.

Paperback editions of ``The Da Vinci Code,’’ released on March 28 have already sold around 500,000 copies, according to Random House division Anchor Books.



Posted by Admin on 04/07 at 05:15 AM
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Brown, Publisher Win `Da Vinci Code’ Plagiarism Suit

Brown, Publisher Win `Da Vinci Code’ Plagiarism Suit

April 7 (Bloomberg)—Dan Brown has been cleared of allegations he plagiarized the plot of his international bestseller ``The Da Vinci Code’’ from an earlier work.

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors of the non- fiction ``The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,’’ sued Brown’s publisher Random House Inc. in London for copyright infringement. They claimed the author made millions from their theories that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child, spawning a royal dynasty.

Justice Peter Smith at the High Court in London today rejected their case, saying that the authors’ ideas were ``too general’’ to be protected under U.K. copyright law and that their book didn’t have one central storyline.

The decision ends the threat that the lawsuit would delay the release of the film version of ``The Da Vinci Code,’’ which is due to open worldwide on May 19, starring Tom Hanks. The tale of religion, murder and mystery, which currently sits atop the New York Times fiction bestseller list, has sold more than 40 million copies.

``Today’s verdict shows that this claim was utterly without merit,’’ Brown said in a statement. ``A novelist must be free to draw appropriately from historical works without fear that he’ll be sued and forced to stand in a courtroom facing a series of allegations that call into question his very integrity as a person.’’

The plagiarism case, which opened on Feb. 27, drew packed courtrooms for three weeks in London. The New Hampshire-based author spent three days on the witness stand defending ``The Da Vinci Code,’’ providing a detailed account of his writing and research process and even his personal fitness regime.

Baigent and Leigh’s allegations centered on 15 plot points common to both books, including the final resting place of the Holy Grail and the idea that Jesus’s royal progeny were guarded by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, whose ``grand masters’’ have included Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. ``The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail’’ was published in 1982, more than 20 years before ``The Da Vinci Code.’’

Brown claimed there were critical differences between the two books and that the ideas explored in his thriller have been debated for centuries.

``The ruling is excellent news for genre authors the world over,’’ said Thomas Hays, an intellectual property lawyer at London-based law firm Lewis Silkin. ``This judgment reaffirms an author’s right and freedom to work within the bounds of established forms,’’ he said.

Paperback editions of ``The Da Vinci Code,’’ released on March 28 have already sold around 500,000 copies, according to Random House division Anchor Books.



Posted by Admin on 04/07 at 05:15 AM
News • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
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