Bibliofemme News
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07/08/2005
Court rules Brown didn't copy Da Vinci Code
Best selling author Dan Brown has won a court case where he was been sued by another writer who claimed Brown had copied elements from his two books.
Lewis Perdue had sought a legal ruling that Brown's 2003 book The Da Vinci Code infringed the copyright of his novels Daughters of God and The Da Vinci Legacy, published in 2000 and 1983. Perdue was seeking $150 million in damages and was asking the court to block distribution of The Da Vinci Code and to stop the filming of the movie based on the book, which is being produced by Sony pictures.
Perdue said he would appeal the ruling within 30 days.
"I have no doubt that we're going to see this overturned on appeal because there have been copyright infringement cases where the parties had less to go on than we have and they were able to have their cases overturned," he said.
Perdue said he read Brown's book after getting unsolicited e-mails from readers pointing out the similarities in their works.
"I felt violated, like somebody had broken into my head," he said. "It took away the results of my creativity."
The Da Vinci Code has been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church because the plot is based on the theory that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had children, whose descendants have endured to the present day.
Perdue's book Daughter of God is an art-world thriller featuring an American husband and wife and involving a document that tells the story of a second Messiah named Sophia who lived in the fourth century.
Judge George Daniels of U.S. District Court in New York made a detailed analysis of the plots of the two books, as well as Perdue's earlier work, The Da Vinci Legacy, which shares some elements with his later novel.
"A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God," Daniels wrote in his summary judgement.
"Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalised or otherwise unprotectable ideas," he said, adding that copyright did not protect an idea, but only the expression of an idea.
Daniels said while both novels were mystery thrillers, "Daughter of God" was more action-packed with gunfights and violent deaths.
"The Da Vinci Code, on the other hand, was an intellectual, complex treasure hunt," he said.
Brown initiated the proceedings by filing a suit seeking a declaratory ruling his book did not infringe Perdue's copyright. Perdue, who has a Web site documenting what he calls Brown's plagiarism, then counter-sued.
There are currently 350 million copies of The Da Vinci code in print world-wide.
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