Final chapter for The Da Vinci Code case to unfold in court

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) — A three-week long trial that has swung from the religious mysteries in “The Da Vinci Code” to the more humdrum world of copyright law approaches its climax in a British court Monday.

Lawyers for Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors who claim millionaire novelist Dan Brown “appropriated the architecture” of their 1982 nonfiction book “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,” are to begin their closing arguments in High Court.

Baigent and Leigh are suing Random House, publishers of “The Da Vinci Code,” for copyright infringement.

Both “The Da Vinci Code” and “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” explore theories — dismissed by theologians — that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, the couple had a child and that the bloodline survives.

On Friday, lawyers for Random House argued that the case of Baigent and Leigh was in tatters. Lawyer John Baldwin said Brown’s work gathered a number of incidents and put them together in a unique way, which was why he had a hit novel.

Brown has acknowledged that he and his wife, Blythe Brown, read “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail” while researching “The Da Vinci Code,” but said they also used 38 other books and hundreds of documents, and that the British authors’ book was not crucial to their work.

“The ideas are of too general a nature to be capable of copyright protection,” Baldwin argued. “The claimants’ claim relates to ideas at a high level of generality, which copyright does not protect.”

Brown spent three days on the witness stand defending his book and his research methods. “The Da Vinci Code” follows fictional professor Robert Langdon as he investigates the murder of an elderly member of an ancient society that guards dark secrets about the story of Jesus and the quest for the Holy Grail.

If Baigent and Leigh succeed in securing an injunction to bar the use of their material, they could hold up the scheduled May 19 film release of “The Da Vinci Code,” starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. Sony Pictures says it plans to release the film as scheduled.

Read Another Article

24 House Church Leaders Missing After Police Raid in Henan Province, China
Evangelicals seeing the error of replacement theology

Related News Articles Topic(s): Da Vinci Code Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Da Vinci Code Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog