Heard on MSNBC that the author of The DaVinci Code has lost a plagerism lawsuit brought against him by the author of an earlier book, The Holy Grail. If the court imposes an injunction the movie may get shelved until all the legal issues are straightened out.

whoops! may be the most anticipated movie of 2009!

According to MSNBC the suit was just filed against Random House, Brown's publisher. The story can be found here.

Since this case is only active in a British court, the only thing that could happen is the release could be delayed in Great Britain because of an injunction.

Did anyone read Holy Grail, Holy Blood? I am curious to see if Brown actually plagerized, or if some lawyers are just trying to make some money.

I guess Brown paid homage to the earlier work by using parts of the authors' names in one of the character's names (so the story goes).

Depends on your definition of plagiarism. But Brown basically appropriated his ideas from Holy Blood, Holy Grail wholesale. I'm amazed that it took this long for someone to make a legal stink about it.

amateur artists borrow ideas, professional artists steal them

Well, to be fair, the theories in Holy Blood, Holy Grail can be traced back several centuries, so it's not as if the authors wove it from whole cloth.

that's what tonight's NBC Nightly News hinted at, as being a possible outcome.

i thought HG HB was a theory on what the grail is, and da vinci code was fiction using that theory?

Pretty much, but according to the authors, Dan Brown stole their "research" when he wrote The DaVinci Code.

Why wait 'til now to bring legal preceedings? The book, which has not seen and probably never will see a paperback version (it's sells a shitload), has to be making millions, OR *places tinfoil hat on securely* it's just some sort of timely marketing ploy.

It's all about the shake-down, and the film has a lot more to lose if it can't be released in the slotted theatrical opening date.

DaVinci Code Paperback is coming in MARCH, as a movie tie in. I think this whole lawsuit is just to drum up some free publicity. The authors in question probably have a new similarly themed book coming down the pike... In reading the book, I never thought Brown claimed the ideas as his own, he just worked them into a story. I also thought somewhere he did give credit to HGHB, so I really don't see what this is all about. Another frivolous lawsuit, like those folk singing bitches who tried to sue Warner over Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, trying to get it shelved in Canada over a complete non-issue... Code will open EVERYWHERE on it's scheduled date in May.

MATT

If I'm not mistaken, the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail is actually mentioned in The Da Vinci Code.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I expect we;ll see an out of court settlement for terms that will never be divulged.

The fascination with DaVinci Code is precisely because it blends lots of facts into a fictional setting, creating possibilities that have the ring of truth even though they are fictional. The fact that the suit is only now being brought smacks of a money grab - it's not as if this book was a low-profile secret.

The Da Vinci Code already released the paperback version. I have a paperback version in my room right now two feet away from me.

Where did you get it? Because it's not even listed at Amazon. Are you sure it isn't Angels and Demons?

Dude, it's two feet away from him! Two feet!

Your comment is kinda rude. I wasn't intending to brag, I was just stating a fact.

Where did you get it?

I just ordered it from www.qpb.com. I buy many of my books from them.

From the Yahoo article I read yesterday, some of the ideas supposedly stolen from Holy Blood, Holy Grail were the same ideas I read in the Illuminatus Trilogy a decade before HBHG was published.

Well, the idea that the Grail was actually the child of Christ, born of Mary Magdalen can be traced back to the Cathars and 13th century France, if not earlier.

I haven't read Holy Blood, Holy Grail in a very long time, but from what I remember, a great deal of it was simply reporting theories that had been around for a long time.

Yet I can also remember thinking when I first heard about The Da Vinci Code that this guy had basically ripped off Holy Blood, Holy Grail, because the similarities were too remarkable to be coincidental.

None of this is to argue that Holy Blood, Holy Grail contains facts, because it doesn't. It only contains factual reports of what people have believed--nothing more.