Court hears plagiarism claim against Da Vinci Code

Court hears plagiarism claim against Da Vinci Code

	Published : Wed, 01 Mar 2006 02:05 By : Richard Owen Print this Story

LONDON: Dan Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code" came to the London high court Monday at the start of a hearing in a suit filed by two historians alleging that he had copied ideas in his best-selling book from their 1982 non-fiction, "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail". The suit is against Brown's British publisher, Random House.

The two historians, Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, have charged that Brown has virtually stolen "the whole architecture" of the research that went into their book. The Da Vinci Code focuses of the theme that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and had a child. Leigh and Baigent too hold forth the same theory in their book contending that Christ's bloodline is continuing to this day and they allege Brown has lifted this.

The researchers' lawyer, Jonathan James, told the court that Brown has used the book, which was also published by Random House and had been a best seller, as a source and as an "essential point of reference".

Random House, part of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, denied the charges. Gail Rebuck, chief executive of the publishing company said, as publisher of both The Da Vinci Code and The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, "we are genuinely saddened that two of the three authors of HBHG have chosen to bring this litigation against us. Random House takes no pleasure in defending a legal action that it believes is without merit and we are confident that we will prevail."

The third co-author of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, Henry Lincoln, has decided not to participate in the suit.

The Da Vinci Code had been subject of litigation earlier too. Brown had won in last August a court ruling against another writer, Lewis Perdue, who also claimed Brown had copied from two of his novels, "Daughter of God" and "The Da Vinci Legacy".

Brown sat attentively in the court. He is expected to give evidence next week.

In a witness statement, he had said he developed the ideas for his novel long before reading the 1982 book. "By the time we obtained a copy of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, I had already written the synopsis and the opening ... and had in place the themes."

His lawyers insisted that despite this, he had made clear his debt to the authors of HBHG by mentioning the book in The Da Vinci Code.

James, the lawyer for Leigh and Baigent, told the court that Brown's wife, Blythe Brown, and Ohio University librarian Stan Plankton had gone through religious and historical texts on Brown's behalf as he wrote his novel, typing up notes and in some instances, copying parts of his clients' book. He alleged that the extent of "highlighted markings" in Blythe Brown's copy of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail show it was not "merely consulted as an incidental reference source", he said.

The two authors have also claimed that the name of the villain in The Da Vinci Code, Leigh Teaming, is a deliberate anagram of Leigh and Baigent.

Brown in a statement to the press later denied charges that he had copied sections of the 1982 book. He said he does not subscribe to the theory that Jesus did not die on the cross as mentioned in the 1982 book. "Suggesting a married Jesus is one thing, but questioning the Resurrection undermines the very heart of Christian belief," he said.

Jonathan Baldwin, who represented Random House, said the two authors were making "wild allegations." He told the court that their argument is completely unsupported by any facts and some of the allegations are scandalous.

The Da Vinci Code had won the best book award at British Book Awards. More than 30 million copies of the book have been sold in about 40 languages. The novel has also been adapted into a movie starring Tom Hanks and French actress Audrey Tautou, which is due for release at the Cannes film festival this year.