Defeated Da Vinci Code historians plan appeal
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-11 11:09
LONDON - Two historians - including a New Zealander - who lost a plagiarism
case over bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code plan to appeal against the
verdict, court officials said yesterday.
The officials said the appeal
could take place later this year, but no specific date has been set. The
Bookseller reported the appeal was due to be heard in early 2007.
British
publisher Random House, which won the copyright case earlier this year at the
High Court in London, expressed disappointment at the decision by New Zealander
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh to appeal.
"We have the utmost respect
for the British legal system and acknowledge Baigent and Leigh's right to appeal
the ruling in the DVC case," a Random House spokesman said.
"We regret,
however, that more time and money is being spent trying to establish a case that
was so comprehensively defeated in the High Court," he added.
Baigent
and Leigh's lawyer in the original case, Paul Sutton, could not be reached for
immediate comment.
A judge ruled in April that the central themes which
the historians said author Dan Brown had copied from their 1982 book The Holy
Blood and the Holy Grail were "too general" to be protected by copyright law
even if they had been reproduced.
Brown, who testified during the
month-long trial, had expressed astonishment that Baigent and Leigh filed the
suit in the first place.
The historians faced a legal bill of more than 1
million pounds ($3 million) after losing the case. The Da Vinci Code has sold
more than 40 million copies worldwide and been turned into a Hollywood hit
starring Tom Hanks.
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