A Londoner's Diary; Piers Paul Read on the New Yorker Who Plagiarised Martin Amis, and Dan Brown's Slander of Opus Dei

Byline: PIERS PAUL READ

Shortly before it was published, I was sent an advance copy of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I glanced through it, recognised the recycled nonsense of the Eighties bestseller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and sent it off, unread, to the Oxfam shop. Now Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, are suing Dan Brown for breach of copyright. I would be surprised if they succeed. As I understand it, an author's rights are confined to his words, not his characters, plots or ideas. Particularly when an author, or in this case authors, claims that they are uncovering historical truths, those truths enter the public domain.

Both books were big bestsellers, which only goes to show that …

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Publication information: Article title: A Londoner's Diary; Piers Paul Read on the New Yorker Who Plagiarised Martin Amis, and Dan Brown's Slander of Opus Dei. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Evening Standard (London, England). Publication date: March 10, 2006. Page number: 5. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group.

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