We always said the whole thing was a lot of nonsense, and now a judge says the same thing. Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code -- and all around nice guy -- has been cleared of those false allegations that he stole someone's idea when he wrote The Da Vinci Code. Reuters reports:
Best-selling author Dan Brown has won a court ruling against another writer who claimed Brown's book The Da Vinci Code copied elements from two of his books, Brown's publisher, Random House, said on Friday.
Brown avoided $150 million in damages author Lewis Perdue had sought in a legal ruling that also characterized his blockbuster book as an "intellectual" work.
Perdue had claimed The Da Vinci Code, which has 36 million copies in print worldwide, infringed the copyright of his novels Daughter of God and The Da Vinci Legacy.
Perdue sought $150 million damages and asked the court to block distribution of the book and a movie of The Da Vinci Code that is in production by Sony Pictures.....
....Judge George Daniels of U.S. District Court in New York made a detailed analysis of the plots of the two books, as well as Perdue's earlier work, The Da Vinci Legacy, which shares some elements with his later novel.
"A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God," Daniels wrote in his summary judgment.
You can read our interview with Dan Brown here. You can read a fascinating article Dan wrote for us about his inspiration for Angels and Demonshere.
