'Da Vinci Code' Author Wins Court Case

Best selling author, and writer of the popular 'Da Vinci Code', Dan Brown has won his most recent court case in London today.

The court case against the American author claimed the Dan Brown had plagiarised some of the material he used in his hit novel, the 'Da Vinci Code'. The case, which was also filed against Dan Brown's U.K. publisher, Random House, claims that Dan Brown actually copied a large amount of information from the book, 'The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail'.

Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, the authors of the historical book called, 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail', brought Dan Brown to court. 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail' is a non-fiction book that looks into the history of some of the themes presented in the 'Da Vinci Code'. The only similarity found between the two books is that their theme revolves around Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene and that they had a child and the family bloodline is still in existence today. Both books also suggest that when Jesus was crucified, Mary Magdalene escaped to France.

The non-fiction book researched and written by Leigh and Baigent was fist published twenty-four years ago, in 1982. To date the book has sold some 2 million copies. It has also become popular in recent years as the publication of the 'Da Vinci Code' sparked a mass interest in the theme.

The London appeal court case was dismissed by three senior judges today. This is the second rejection that Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent have received on their case. Previous their case was taken to the High Court where it was also dismissed.

It is thought that the historians, Leigh and Baigent are now facing up to three million dollars in legal fees. The case against Dan Brown is likely to stop here. There is one more legal route that the historians can take and that is to file for permission to take their case to the House of Lords. However as of yet no application has been filed.

For the initial case against Dan Brown his wife Blythe, who did much of the research for the book, was said to have known she was basing much of her research on just the historians' book.

After the historians brought the appeal case against Brown one of the judges, Lord Justice John Mummery said today, "In my judgement, the judge rightly held that the claimants have not established that a substantial part of 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail' has been copied."

After the verdict was given U.K. publishers of the 'Da Vinci Code', Random House, told Reuters, "common sense and justice" had won. "We believe that the case should never have come to court in the first place, and regret that even more time and money was spent trying to appeal the original judgement." "Misguided claims like the one that we have faced, and the appeal, are not good for authors and not good for publishers."

Even with two tries, Leigh and Baigent still believe they had a case. After the verdict they told Reuters, "We feel that today is an ominous one for those who wish to research a book on their own and come up with their own theories." "It is a carte blanche for those who would rather not bother but simply take another author's ideas and adapt them"

The 'Da Vinci Code' has been a worldwide success, selling over 4o million copies. The book was also adapted into movie format and starred Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou.

Sources
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2859525620070328?pageNumber=3
http://www.rte.ie/arts/2007/0328/brownd.html
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=303233&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/