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Random wins Da Vinci appeal

28.03.07 Katherine Rushton

The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court judgement which cleared The Da Vinci Code (DVC) author Dan Brown of plagiarising The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (HBHG).

Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, who co-authored the 1982 non-fiction work, argued that Brown had taken the “architecture” of their book and “hung it on the peg of a fictional thriller”. They added that the original trial judge, Mr Justice Peter Smith, had been sidetracked by discussion of the “central themes” which dominated the High Court trial and had misunderstood both the case and the law itself.

Random House c.e.o. Gail Rebuck said in a statement: “We welcome today’s judgment. We believe that the case should never have come to court in the first place, and regret that even more time and money was spent trying to appeal the original judgment. Misguided claims like the one that we have faced, and the appeal, are not good for authors, and not good for publishers. But we are glad that the Court of Appeal has upheld the original judgment and that, once again, common sense and justice have prevailed, helping to ensure the future of creative writing in the UK.”

Katherine Rushton Dan Brown Random House

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