The BBC is reporting that Dan Brown has won the preposterous case brought by writers Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who wrote the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, in which many plot ideas from The Da Vinci Code are based. The claimants argued that Brown had stolen several of their key ideas and had used them in his book.
The fact that The Da Vinci Code had some ideas from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail has never been disputed. What Baigent and Leigh seemed to be arguing is that you could not base fiction on their ideas. Well, the fact that their book was based on shoddy research, forged documents and more recycled ideas, should come into play. Ideas do not spring out of thin air, we are all influenced by other’s thoughts and premises. I look forward to reading the ruling.
Brown reacted like this: “After devoting so much time and energy to this case, I’m eager to get back to writing my new novel.”
Nice plug for his next book.
2 Comments
RC · April 7, 2006 at 3:53 pm
This has got to be the biggest publicity stunt and marketing miracle ever…I outlined all the winners on my blog and it's kind of amazing how many people really won with this.–RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
Andres Guadamuz · April 8, 2006 at 2:06 am
Hi RC,I thoroughly agree. It is not the first time that law suits have been used to further commercial interests, but this could start a trend. Publicity by lawsuit?