Feb 27, 2006 6:25 pm US/Central
Professor Weighs In On 'Da Vinci Code' Controversy
Money Apparently At Heart Of Legal Battle
by Vince Gerasole
(CBS)
It's the latest whodunit for a best-selling conspiracy thriller: Just who first thought up "The Da Vinci Code"?
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole explains a dramatic legal case could not only decide who deserves the credit for the book, but also when we'll get to see the movie version.
From the anticipated film to the blockbuster book, we'll try to decipher the latest chapter in the Da Vinci Code.
Author Dan Brown was in a London courtroom Monday, arguing that you can't own history. His fictional book claims Jesus Christ and Mary Magdeline married and had a child.
Some 20 years ago, the authors of "Holy Blood Holy Grail" made the same claim in a scholarly work. It's even mentioned in Brown's "Da Vinci Code."
Now, the authors of the earlier factual work are suing for infringement of copyright. The authors are suing for $18 million dollars, and the film's expected release on May 19 is jeopardized.
"This has been going on for a very long time," said Northwestern University Professor Brian Bouldrey. "Things are different now because there's money involved."
Professor Brian Bouldrey, director of Northwestern University's Creative Writing Program, says derivative works crowd our bookshelves.
"Good writers imitate, great writers steal," he said.
From "Hamlet" to "Romeo and Juliet," the great William Shakespeare apparently rarely saw a play he didn't like.
"They were shabbier versions that he re-worked and polished up," Bouldrey said.
Remember the movie "Clueless" with Alicia Silverstone? It's very similar to "Emma" by Jane Austin.
So why is the code of literature and the code of law clashing at this time? Bouldrey has a theory.
"Shakespeare's not around to be sued," he said.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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