Da Vinci trial pits history against artThe Observer, Sunday February 26, 2006
Nothing less than the future of Western literature is at stake in the High Court tomorrow. Or so the publisher of The Da Vinci Code, the money-spinning blockbuster by Dan Brown, is expected to argue in a ground-breaking trial.
Brown, whose tale of clerical conspiracy and murder has become the bestselling hardback adult novel of all time, is accused of plundering his plot from a non-fiction work called The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
Historians Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who co-wrote the book with Henry Lincoln, claim that Brown plagiarised 'the whole jigsaw puzzle' of their decade's worth of research - that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child, founding a bloodline that was protected by the Knights Templar.
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2 comments:
Smells like a marketing strategy to me, esp. as the movie's coming out soon.
www.sodarktheconofman.com
I thought so too at first. But honestly, does this film need this kind of marketing? People will be tripping over themselves to see it.
The two historians might need the additional publicity, but I somehow doubt that they would risk that much money to dispute something if they were not convinced about it.
The questions that arise are relevant though: "A Random House source said: 'Can you copyright an idea? Previously copyright has applied just to how the idea is used. This is why we are confident. If the claimants win, it's the end of John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Robert Harris, Helen Fielding - and Shakespeare.'
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It does look like whoever wins, Random House comes out on top.
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