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Da Vinci Court Case

For those following the court case over The Da Vinci Code and alleged plagiarism from Holy Blood, Holy Grail, here’s a sampling of the stories covering the trial (roughly chronological):

  • The case begins.
  • Michael Baigent’s family talks to reporters while the man himself is grilled on the stand.
  • Dan Brown’s witness statement (all 68 pages). I’ll have plenty more to say about this in another update.
  • Dan Brown takes to the stand, and expresses his shock at being sued for plagiarism.
  • Dan struggles to follow the arguments of Baigent and Leigh’s lawyer.
  • Brown explains how his wife played a huge role in the writing of The Da Vinci Code.
  • And also passes out the secrets to his novel-writing success.
  • Questions arise as to why Brown’s copy of Holy Blood, Holy Grail is so damaged if he hardly used it as a source. In a further update, Brown disputes some evidence, due to British grammar being used in the document (which was supposedly written by his American wife).
  • Baigent and Leigh’s lawyer – and the judge himself – question Brown’s ignorance of the primacy of Holy Blood, Holy Grail to ‘Jesus bloodline’ theories.
  • Authors Baigent and Leigh were told by publishers: “Don’t be fools“. Also remarks that the case may be due to Baigent and Leigh’s desire to sell the film rights to their book.
  • Brown admits that he used a number of ideas from Holy Blood, Holy Grail, but also used many other sources.

The case is expected to wrap up early next week, although the decision could take over a month to be handed down. Don’t forget to vote in our poll here on TDG!

Editor
  1. If only TDVC were 68 pages
    How come I couldn’t finish TDVC, but I managed to gobble up 68 pages of Dan Brown’s witness statements?

    Brown’s fudging the truth, and I’ve lost quite a bit of respect for him. However, I still hope Leigh Teabing lose the case simply because if they win, then I and every other fiction writer is screwed.

    When I first heard about the lawsuit, I immediately sided with Dan Brown, but the more I read the court proceedings and statements from both sides, the more I’m thinking that they are both right and wrong. It’s not so black and white, but a whole lot of grey, made murkier by Random House’s ulterior motives.

    1. A point
      After reading through the statement, I think one thing is contributing to the problem more than any other. Brown is saying “no, I didn’t rip off HBHG…see, I took from Templar Revelation, The Hiram Key etc as well”. What he doesn’t seem to understand, is that they are grounded in HBHG…it was really the catalyst. However, on the other hand, this means nothing in terms of copyright. But it helps me understand both sides better.

      I just wrote a piece about the statement for my Solomon Key website – I’ll post the link here on TDG soon.

      Peace and Respect
      Greg
      ——————————————-
      You monkeys only think you’re running things

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