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Dan Brown - Under Oath?

I think someone just wants a slice of the gigantic pie Dan Brown has baked. A hundred and something weeks on the best sellers' list... mmm... pie.
 
There are only so many stories in the world and variations. It's certainly possible that those 2 books are similar without there being any foul play.
 
Just look at Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz. I can't tell you how many times the lines "I see dead people" and "sixth sense" pop up throughout. I think just about every idea has been used up, with exception of the stories in that Putnik guy's book... those stories are twisted.
 
Agreed. Unless you write something really unusual there is bound to be something similar out there.

btw, twisted is good :D
 
When I write I try to tackle subjects never put under the microscope before, and then explode on those subjects. My first book is a collection of five novellas that mesh together into one giant fustercluck of a story. It's a bit horror, a bit supernatural, a bit suspense, and as literary as I could manage. Unique? Probably not. Everything's been done before... but I try my hardest to be different.
 
Zolipara said:
Heh you still belive Perdue will have trouble proving he wrote his book before Dan Brown?
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It's possible Perdue wrote his first; but that doesn't mean that Perdue doesn't have an agenda.
 
Vanessa2 said:
I found that the writing styles and stories were very different.
My opinion is that there is no plagiarism in this case.
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Writing style, for one, has nothing to do with it. I could easily write the same story again but not use Dan Brown's awful written style and it would be considered plagiarism. Or second generation plagiarism...

The stories being different, also, is irrelevant. Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart and The Damnation Game were both retellings of Goethe's Faust which was a retelling of Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. The stories were completely different despite the common elements being present.

It's the elements used, and how they are used and presented, that matter. You say nothing of these; please elaborate.
 
Yes, I agree that the writing styles have nothing to do with plagiarism, but I just wanted to mention it.

Posted by Stewart
It's the elements used, and how they are used and presented, that matter.
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Do you mean characters, plots, events?

The main similarity I think is that the protagonists are trying to find something, that if discovered and divulged, would rock the foundation of the Catholic Church.

I think the characters are different and what they do throughout the books are different.

Here is an excerpt from the Random House's legal fillings:

" Da Vinci Code" is a "gleefully erudite suspense novel" built on complex puzzle clues, several of them connected to Da Vinci's art, eventually demonstrating the Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had descendants, a secret long kept by the Priory of Sion. Daughter is an entirely different story - a "shoot-en-up" thriller, invloving Nazis and the Russian mafia, where the protagonists battle an ultranationalist Russian leader and a Cardinal seeking to depose the Pope to uncover the fanciful secret that a second Messial named Sophia was born and arose in Anatolia in the Fourth Century."

That's a very fast and crude comparison of the books.

Someone ealier posted a link to the site that has tables which list all of alleged similarities. You can have a look there to see the similarities, but I think the tables don't mean too much if you haven't read the books.

I'm not sure, but did that answer your question?
 
I think Random House have got a cheek to use the word erudite in that context.

So, why are they only comparing The Da Vinci Code to Daughter of God and trying to divert attention from the other novel that Perdue is claiming plagiarism on; namely The Da Vinci Legacy?
 
If you look at the actual document where I got the quote, erudite is a quote from someone else, and I guess it means characterized by specialized knowledge. Well, it's a bit above me anyway.

I think Random House is also comparing Legacy. They mention Legacy in the fillings.

I was posting mostly about Daughter of God since I read somewhere that that's the one with the most similarities.
 
Vanessa2 said:
If you look at the actual document where I got the quote, erudite is a quote from someone else, and I guess it means characterized by specialized knowledge.
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You'll need to direct me to the document. :)
 
"erudite", in this instance, is a quote by the counterclaimants ("Random House") used in the summary of their counterclaim against Lewis Perdue ("Perdue"). Therefore, they still have a cheek to be using the word erudite in relation to The Da Vinci Code - I would have them perjured just for that.
 
jenngorham said:
so has anyone read perdue? is he a better writer? and if so what is it about brown's book that swept the world? just timing?
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i think with the da vinci code it was mainly word of mouth and just the fasinatation ppl had with the mixture of art and religion in there. even my MOTHER heard of that book, and she doesn't know anything about pop culture or current trends in anything
 
It certainly seems as though there is a possibility of purgery in this case - that table shows so many similarities, and not common similarities either, such as the whole thing with the key. Just too many coincidences to rule out foul play, IMHO.

Vanessa2 said:
I think the characters are different and what they do throughout the books are different
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If that table is correct, then they are actually surprisingly similar.
 
I have now spent the better part of the last 4 hours reading up on this whole Perdue vs. Brown thing.

I read Perdue's blog with the knowledge that he will likely not give an entirely unbiased view of things. But I find it hard to dismiss the filed court papers. Based on those I really cannot see why that decision by Judge Daniels was what it was, on that I must agree with Perdue, Judge Daniels seems to have copied more or less directly what Random House has written in their papers, and has avoided considering some of the points that are pointed out as central.

I have read neither of those books, so I will not judge exactly who is in the right here, but judging from the alleged facts presented in those papers by both parties the Judge should not have judged as he did, there should have been a trial there.

I knew I should have gone into law school anyway, whatever made me steer away from that course?

... *sigh*
 
This, for the record, is a completely different case than the Perdue one everyone's been discussing on this thread (that case was kicked out some time ago). This was brought by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, co-authors (with Henry Lincoln, who wisely didn't get involved) of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, published in 1982, which they said was plagiarised by Brown in The Da Vinci Code.

It was a case doomed to failure from the start. Baigent & Leigh's book claims to be historical fact, ie that Christ didn't die on the cross but had a family with Mary Magdalene. If it is fact, as they claim, then they can't sue someone else for using those 'facts' as the theoretical background to a work of fiction. You can't copyright history.

Perhaps the case was just a loss leader for Baigent's new book, which entirely coincidentally, came out in the same week as the judgement.
 
Shade said:
This, for the record, is a completely different case
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It was a simple decision of not wanting to start yet another Dan Brown thread, and since the title of this one was "Dan Brown - Under Oath?" it seemed like an appropriate place to go.
 
Sure, I realise that Moto; no criticism intended and this is indeed precisely the right place for the link to go. Just wanted to clarify the two distinct cases and add my own tuppenceworth.
 
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