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The "Da Vinci" Trial

Perhaps the funniest thing in this report today from The Herald Tribune is the following.

Baigent and Leigh are suing "Da Vinci Code" publisher Random House for copyright infringement, claiming Brown "appropriated the architecture" of their 1982 nonfiction book "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail."

Excuse me - "non-fiction" - yeah right.

Actually it should have been filed under "Fortean" and "Forget" because it was only interesting for its 15 minutes of fame back in 1982.

If it hadn't been for the "Da Vinci Code" everyone would have forgotten the Baigent and Leigh book by now.

Except the Christians - they are a little fed up with the suggestion that Jesus married, had a child and lived happily ever after.

It seems to annoy them for some reason - something to do with the resurrection and 2,000 years of faith I guess.

But as they don't seem to be taking to the streets and demonstrating against it no-one seems to care about their feelings.

It's all about copyright - not about faith - so the "Auto da Fe" with Baigent, Leigh and Brown will have to wait for another year.

If I wasn't so new-age and fluffy I'd cynically suggest that certain authors are suffering from sour grapes and want a slice of the very large pie that Dan Brown has baked out of left over ingredients.

I suppose I should mention the Templars round about now ...

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Posted by Dr. K on March 16, 2006 12:04 AM |

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» Da Vinci Trial - the "smoking gun" - almost from Dr. K
I've spoken before about the "Da Vinci Trial" and commented then that the ideas were not original - and that for Baigent & to Leigh to claim them was laughable. This is from "The Secret of the 59th Chapter" by... [Read More]

Tracked on March 24, 2006 9:35 PM

» Da Vinci Code: Author Cleared from Dr. K
As I predicted, Dan Brown - the author of the best selling "Da Vinci Code" - has been cleared of copyright violation. In issuing his judgment, Justice Peter Smith said that Mr. Brown did indeed rely on the earlier work,... [Read More]

Tracked on April 8, 2006 2:51 PM

Comments

The most striking feature about this case is that:

"The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" is published by the imprint Century, which is owned by Random House

"The Da Vinci Code" is published by the imprints Bantam Press and also by Corgi as a paperback, both of which are owned by Random House

Shouldn't you be getting your publisher to sue one of their other authors, so that both of you benefit from increased sales through all the media publicity ?

Posted by: wtwu | March 17, 2006 2:31 AM