That's it! i'm calling the Attorney's for Mark, Matthew, Luke and John ... both of the novles you referenced rip off their primary character, and that is blatant plagarism...
Here in the U.S., copyright law protects _expression_, not ideas/facts. I haven't heard any allegation that Dan Brown borrowed actual language form Holy Blood, Holy Grail. So, it's hard to see how he could lose this lawsuit.
Maybe copyright law is different in the U.K. (where this lawsuit is pending), but I doubt it.
One thing I know for sure -- Holy Blood, Holy Grail is currently ranked #9 on Amazon's bestseller list.
"Here in the U.S., copyright law protects _expression_, not ideas/facts."
Whoa, really? I'm gonna make a movie about light sword wielding samurai's in a Sci-Fi setting right now!! And I think I'll write a novel about a little boy with magic powers that attends a super secret school in England while I'm at it!
It's like printing my own money! Whoo Hoo!
The idea of Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene is not new. Liberal theologians like John Shelby Spong think it likely, and hey, anyone remember Last Temptation of Christ?
The case had better be stronger than that point.
Well, the marriage idea isn't so much. But the secret bloodline that extends down into the centuries and is preserved by the most secret orders of the church seems a bit more distinctive.
Julie,
If you want to write a book about a little boy with magic powers that attends a super secret school in England, you absolutely can do that.
That idea alone won't sell millions of copies of your book, though. To be successful you need to _express_ the idea in a way that will interest people (and, unlike the idea, the expression can't be borrowed).
One other way you could succeed would be to sue an already successful author. In some cases, that seems to really help sales.
Ironically, you can only sue for copyright infringement if a work is fictional. That is unless you directly lift text. Copyright in historiography merely requires citation of sources, and Brown cites HBHG as a source. For copyright to be in effect Brown must have stolen a "created idea."
Brown's story is an original thriller based upon arguments developed in HBHG, but it is not a retelling of that story.
I liked Davinci Code, but it does suffer from many historical inaccuracies. None of which matters because it is fiction, even if some people take it too seriously on both the advocacy and offense sides.
David,
If the bloodline were "fact" then it is open to any use. For example, if you wanted to write about Joan of Arc you could. If you wanted to write about Hannibal, you can. You can even use historian's books, so long as you credit them, for the basis of your information. Because it is history. The only time you can sue for an idea, is if it is a creation.
Well, it'll probably fall out. But I was annoyed by everyone who reads trendy paperbacks suddenly becoming an amateur conspiracy theorist/alternate historian without evenr realizing that people had talked about this stuff well over a decade before...
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