The Code Conquers

http://books.guardian.co.uk/danbrown/story/0,,1749361,00.htmlI for one am as pleased as punch that Leigh and Baigent had to eat crow and go home with their academic tails tucked beween their legs.As a book,DVC fulfilled most major requirements for a thriller although it's pedestrian writing and colourless characters left me cold.But more to the point of this discussion:Ideas presented in DVC,whether packaged haphazardly within a routine run-of-the mill thriller(as what was done by Dan Brown),or woven seamlessly into a exciting tension-filled plot with superior writing by a more accomplished practisioner of the craft,have been floating about in academic and religious texts for decades.What I'm sure irked Mr.Leigh and Mr.Baigent and a good many other people I reckon is the fact that their "academic" work using the Grail theory was moderately successful while Brown's packaging of it has netted him the GDP of a small nation!Leigh and Baigent wanted a piece of the lucrative Da Vinci pie.Can't blame them.Who wouldn't?But to tar Mr.Brown with the plagiarist's brush for ideas long floating in the public domain is a tad too much.Anyway,thanks to the publicity surrounding this case,the plaintiffs should see sales of their books increasing substantially,just in time to pay their lawyers!