£3m victory for Da Vinci Code writer

Oliver Stallwood|Metro11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Author Dan Brown has been cleared of copying chunks of another book in his international bestseller, The Da Vinci Code..

The American writer did not plagiarise the main themes of The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail, three Court of Appeal judges ruled.

The decision in favour of Brown's publisher Random House means two of the three authors of The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, now face legal costs of nearly £3million.

The appeal verdict upheld a High Court ruling last April that Brown was not guilty of infringing copyright.

Baigent and Leigh's book deals with a theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married, had a child and the bloodline continues to this day, with a secret society protecting their heirs against wicked Church conspiracies.

It is similar to the theme explored in the Brown novel which has earned the author hundreds of millions of pounds worldwide since its publication in 2003 and was turned into a Hollywood movie starring Tom Hanks.

Lord Mummery said yesterday the copyright law did not give authors 'exclusive property rights' over ideas.

He added: 'The claimants have not established that a substantial part of their book has been copied, either as the original composition or the particular collection, selection and arrangement of material and its treatment in their book.'

The original High Court ruling said that Baigent and Leigh should pay 85 per cent of Random House costs, which were estimated to have been about £1.3million. They also have to pay their own legal costs, which are of a similar order.

Random House, which also published Baigent and Leigh's book in 1982, was yesterday awarded the costs of the appeal, estimated at £300,000 for each side.

Brown, who spent three days in the witness box in the original three-week trial, did not attend the appeal hearing.

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