'Da Vinci Code' Author Accused in London...HOW CONVENIENT

[in_cog_ni_to]

for the RW wacko religious nut jobs. Tom Hanks' new movie is coming out soon, May 19. How long has this freakin' book been published??? Their whining because they don't like the book's content, so they're crying foul that he stole info from their Holy Grail book? huh?


'Da Vinci Code' Author Accused in London
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour ago


Dan Brown, author of 'The Da Vinci Code' arrives ...
LONDON - "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown was accused in Britain's High Court on Monday of taking material for his blockbuster conspiracy thriller from a 1982 book about the Holy Grail.

The accusation was made in a breach of copyright lawsuit filed against "The Da Vinci Code" publisher Random House. If the lawsuit succeeds in getting an injunction barring use of the disputed material, the scheduled May 19 release of "The Da Vinci Code" film starring Tom Hanks and Ian McKellan could be threatened.<snip>

<snip>
Both books hinge on the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and they had a child, and that blood line survives to this day. The earlier book set out the notion that Christ did not die on the cross but lived later in France.<snip>

<snip>"Suggesting a married Jesus is one thing, but questioning the Resurrection undermines the very heart of Christian belief," said Brown, who described himself as a committed Christian.<snip>

[Wickerman]

1. link?

thanks

[in_cog_ni_to]

27. Wickerman...sorry I didn't get back here in time to post a link.

I posted this and got busy with other things. I looked for the article "I" quoted and it's not on my Comcast Homepage now.:( I'll see if I can find another article about it and post a link if one hasn't been posted down the thread somewhere.:hi:

[Wickerman]

28. no sweat - this is one of those would like to see as much

as the mod in me. Yikes, the mod in me...! :scared:

[in_cog_ni_to]

32. LOL...I posted a link to an article.

It's down the thread.

[rodeodance]

2. makes me wonder how big the spat would be if this were a documentary

rather than a novel.

[mattclearing]

3. I have never read the book.

That said, I think the idea of it and all the fuss about it is mind-bogglingly stupid. People need to get lives.

[rodeodance]

6. and read another novel--say Whithering Heights?

[mattclearing]

8. You mean Wuthering Heights?

;)

[Warpy]

4. Oh, for cripes sake

To prove plagiarism, they'll have to prove more than a coincidental story. They'll need cribbed verbiage and fictional characters with the same name, stuff like that.

If coincidental parallels in story lines were sufficient to bring plagiarism suits, then every boy meets girl story cranked out by film studios across the globe will be subject to a suit; every romance novel with the sweet young thing swept away by the older man with the mysterious past will be called plagiarism (instead of wretched writing).

I'm wondering if this isn't an exercise in giving free publicity. After all, "The Da Vinci Code" is aimed at believers by believers.

[realisticphish]

9. what makes me believe this isn't political

is that as i understand it, the original book's authors are the ones bringing the suit. They certainly agree with him politically, so I think it's about money (or more likely jealousy, that his book reached ridiculous heights of popularity, while theirs didn't do so well)

[realisticphish]

5. before we get too hasty

there IS a possibility of this being true. As I understand it, a book was published using the exact same concept, with pretty much the same conclusion (though they both had different plots)in 1987 as the article said. Personally, I question whether you can hold a concept as copywrited, but i can see how a court could consider this a valid accusation, on some levels.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

7. Ought to be an interesting case

A lot of that stuff's been banging around for decades. Plaintiff will have a hard time of it, proving exclusivity, I should think.

[yellerpup]

10. I read both books.

I read "Holy Blood-Holy Grail" (I'm not sure of the exact title) maybe 10 years ago, and "The Da Vinci Code" in 2004. Having read the earlier book, I was not shocked at all at the subject matter covered in "The Da Vinci Code". If Brown used it for reference, he should have given credit. Isn't that what the lawsuit is about?

[Geoff R. Casavant]

38. Brown did give credit

I too read both books, and specifically recall that Holy Blood, Holy Grail is mentioned by title in Da Vinci.

Interesting that Michael Baigent, author of Holy Blood, originally claimed his work was a factual historical analysis, but now appears to be claiming it was fiction all along.

Edit for HTML tags.

[onenote]

11. its not as if the case was just filed

Litigation alleging that The Da Vinci Code infringed another author's copyright dates back to 2004 here in the US and sometime last year in the UK. The scheduling of the court hearing on the UK case was set by the court (not the plaintiff) last fall. So maybe instead of "how convenient" it should be "how coincidental".

onenote

[sandnsea]

12. That's an old accusation

I don't care anything about the book, the fundies or the Holy Grail. But the claim was made quite a while ago, has nothing to do with the movie coming out. The whole thing is stupid as far as I'm concerned. The obsessive delight in re-crucifying Christ is as bizarre as those who consider that obsession a serious threat to Christianity. I just don't care.

[immoderate]

13. "Suggesting a married Jesus is one thing, ...

but questioning the Resurrection..." :rofl:

--IMM

[SoCalDem]

20. For Jesus to have been UNMARRIED, would have been strange

People "married" in their teens, and had LARGE families. That was the NORM..and Jesus did not write the bible, so the people who DID write it were able to pick and choose what parts of his life they would document.

The parts of his life that affected THEM were not necessarily the "family parts", so it's obvious to me that they were just omitted..

[FreedomAngel82]

22. They do have some parts of his family in the Bible

They talk about his siblings and his life with his parents. I think it would be kinda hard to have a family like Jesus when he traveled ALL the time all across the known lands. I think Mary stayed behind and did work in the town because there are stories of him going back to visit her.

[SoCalDem]

26. Do we know that their concept of time is the same as ours?

His wanderings could have been concentrated in chunks of time..and didn;t he pretty much stay in a small geographic area?

of course if he was the rebel that some people think he was, he may have had to keep moving to stay one step ahead of the law, so to speak.. Maybe Mary M traveled with him and left the children with the grandparents..:shrug:

[immoderate]

34. "Obvious" is one of those funny words...

Like "literally," as in, "She literally bit my head off."

Then there's that little bit of dissonance between "document" and "pick and choose."

And aren't there some disagreements between the gospel authors. Can we see their primary sources?

--IMM

[SoCalDem]

37. I was raised Catholic, so the bible is not something I ever

paid much attention to..

jesus was probably a nice guy..a rabblerouser who got crossways with the powers that be..they got pissed at him, and offed him..

his followers probably created the myths to keep the organization going.. ..

sounds logical to me anyway

poor, disheartened people like to believe in happy endings and need a lot of faith to carry on with pretty crappy lives:)

[smirkymonkey]

23. Because rising from the dead is such a common occurrence...

:rofl:

[immoderate]

35. !

--IMM

[malaise]

39. People actually believe these things

I wonder if he had that high speed fan fron Torino. Good grief humanity is gullible.

[WinkyDink]

14. There is a plethora of similar books! Except the others claim to be non-

fiction!
Suit ain't got no chance. It's a PR stunt.

[Beelzebud]

15. The authors of Holy Blood Holy Grail are NOT RW whacko religious nut jobs

I've actually read the damn book they wrote. I read it about decade ago.

The stuff they write about would make any RW religious whacko cringe in horror at the blasphomy on those pages.

So just back off. These guys did come up with the entire Holy Grail = Holy Bloodline stuff WAY before Dan Brown.

If you want to criticize them, don't make shit up. If anything they should be criticized for the lawsuit. They claim what they wrote is true. So why would you sue somebody for using that truth to spread the word about it?

THINK

[blondeatlast]

36. Nice to hear from someone familiar with HB, HG.

The authors would hardly be embraced by the TW wack jobs--in fact, I work at a library and the book (HB, HG) is routinely challenged by the wingnutters.

Sometimes I wonder why I open up GD; then I find some intelligent argument backed with facts and my faith (pardon the pun) is restored.

[MadHound]

16. This is a very bizarre lawsuit

Being that Holy Blood, Holy Grail is a non-fiction book, whereas The DaVinci Code is a work of fiction. Yes, Brown did indeed use HBHG as a source for his book, and acknowledged such both in the DaVinci Code and in interviews.

So why are the authors suing Brown? Methinks it is for the money, since Brown's book has made a lot of money. But this would be a horrible precedent to set, getting sued for plagarism of a non-fic book.

Just very bizarre, and apparently all about the money.

[Beelzebud]

17. Exactly. That is what bugs me.

The authors wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail as a non-ficiton book.

They are NOT RW religious freaks. They are about as far from that as you could possibly get...

[Lexingtonian]

18. It's like a fight about reliquaries

or other medieval disputes. I am rooting for both sides to embarrass themselves completely.

[SoCalDem]

19. How weird.. I watched a lecture last night about this very thing

The professor's take on this was that the book is FICTION..and was presented as FICTON..and the people who say their book was "used" should be HAPPY since its sales have shot through the roof since the Da Vinci Code was published..:eyes:

[FreedomAngel82]

21. So nobody is allowed to question and wonder?

I'm a Christian but even I remember being younger (high school days) and wondering if they had anything special more than just friendship since she is always a part of major happenings such as seeing him rise from the dead.
And even in Proverbs it says to question and think independently and not just blindly follow someone.

[Bridget Burke]

25. If you really want to question & wonder....

Read Holy Blood, Holy Grail--by the guys filing the suit. It's got more intellectual weight & deals with some fascinating history. Not that it's all true!

There's lots of recent scholarship on Mary Magdalene. She is presented NOT as the repentant prostitute, nor the little wifie of Jesus. But she may have been an important disciple in her own right.

[Bridget Burke]

24. The Right Wing has nothing to do with this.

The Da Vinci book is "The Idiot's Guide to Holy Blood, Holy Grail." HBHG is non-fiction--not to say that it's all true--but its major ideas were dumbed down by Dan Brown for his blockbuster.

The surviving HBHG authors will sell more books. The "Committed Christian"--Dan Brown--will stay rich & get richer.

[in_cog_ni_to]

29. So, if the movie is pulled because of the lawsuit, the freepers won't

be happy?

That was MY thinking when I posted this. If the movie goes down.....they will be THRILLED.

[LisaLynne]

31. Oh, I think that's probably true.

They would love it. However, if that's the point of this lawsuit, I think it's going to only attract more attention to the original, non-fiction book which HAS to steam the Fundies more. At least, that's how I'm hoping it will work out. :)

[Bridget Burke]

33. Aren't the religious "Freepers" more likely Protestant Fundamentalists?

They probably love the Da Vinci Code because it makes the Roman Catholic Church the enemy.

The movie will NOT be pulled. The HBHG writers will get more publicity--with a cash settlement as a remote possibility.

[LisaLynne]

"The Idiot's Guide."

Hee hee. Exactly!! When I first heard about the Di Vinci Code novel, I was like, "So, what? Ever hear of Holy Blood, Holy Grail?" I mean, that's what I wanted to say to all the people who were freaked out/offended by it. HBHG (because this is the internet and I must acronym) is a work of non-fiction. I think it's pretty clear that the author of the novel must have at least READ it. Now, is that enough for a plagiarism suit? I don't really think so, personally, but that's my layperson's opinion. There were several other books which built upon what HBHG started, all of the ones I'm thinking of non-fiction works.

In the end, I agree -- everybody's going to end up selling more books. :)

[in_cog_ni_to]

30. Here's a link to another article.

The article I quoted isn't on my homepage now. Here's another one.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1718739,00.html

[itchyvet]

40. Da Vinci Code.

in_cog_ni_to

Let's face it mate, YOU can believe whatever you like, the ISSUE that's on the table here, is NOT what YOU or anyone else BELIEVES regarding the religious content.

What the ISSUE IS ABOUT, is called PLAGERISM copying a storyline from another's publication.

When I first heard of the Da Vinci Code, I thought it'd be interesting read. My lovely wife bougth the book for a present and before I got to the second chapter, something clicked in my brain, I've read this stuff before. YEP, sure enough, I even STILL HAVE THE BOOK, THE BLOOD AND THE HOLY GRAIL, first edition, and it's right on the money.
I support the authors in their claims that their publication has been copied, not a doubt in my mind.

By the way, HAVE YOU EVEN READ the book THE BLOOD AND THE HOLY GRAIL ??? or are you ranting on what the media has written ?

[LWolf]

41. Fiction/non-fiction

Isn't Holy Grail a book proposing a theory, and Da Vinci Code purely fiction?

I don't know if it is plagiarism to use someone's theory to write a fiction novel. I also doubt that "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" authors are the first or only to propose this particular theory.

On the other hand, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" doesn't appear on Brown's "partial" bibliography for "Davinci Code" listed on his website. Perhaps it should.