MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
August 15-31, 2005 Edition
Bestselling Author
Dan Brown
Wins Court Case
NEW YORK, NY/8/7/05—New York Times bestselling author Dan Brown has won a court case brought by another writer, claiming that Brown copied elements from two of his books to use in Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
Author Lewis Perdue claimed Brown’s book, which has sold 36 million copies since its release by Random House in 2003, infringed the copyrights of his novels Daughter of God, released in 2000, and The Da Vinci Legacy, published in 1983.
Perdue’s suit asked for $150 million in damages and asked the court to block further distribution of the book and production of a movie based on the book, which is now in production by Sony Pictures.
The lawsuit claimed Brown copied the basic premise of Daughter of God, including ideas of a "divine feminine" and the transition from a female to a male-dominated church under Roman Emperor Constantine.
Perdue said he read Brown’s book after receiving unsolicited e-mails from readers pointing to similarities in their works.
The Roman Catholic Church has scorned the Da Vinci Code because the plot theorizes that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had children, whose descendants still walk among us today.
Perdue plans to appeal the ruling.
