'The Unspeakable in Pursuit of the Inedible'

[major_clanger]

Well, I had been sorely tempted to combine my interests in law and vaguely fortean literature by taking advantage of some time off on Thursday afternoon to pop in to watch the Holy Blood and Holy Grail / Da Vinci Code case before heading off to the Tun. Unfortunately it seems that Baigent & Leigh v Random House has been adjourned until next Tuesday so that Mr Justice Peter Smith can read both books, which by all accounts will spoil his weekend nicely. I share many people's opinion of the weakness of the Claimants' case but it would have been nice to have had the chance to see M'Learned Friends explaining the merits of the Dodgy Conspiracy Theory versus the Crap Thriller.

I personally rate Baigent and Leigh's chances as near-zero; Brown was nowhere near breaching copyright, and not even that close to passing-off. I can only assume that Random House may refrain from seeking summary judgement - i.e. asking the Judge to throw the case out as hopeless - in the hope of winning a resounding victory and setting a precedent that clarifies the law in this area, thus insulating them against further such claims. Nonetheless, this can't be a cheap process for either side; they're represented by Leading Counsel (i.e. QCs) and with all the ancillary costs of litigation thrown it I doubt if they're seeing much change from £10k a day, and that's leaving aside the costs of preparation. Indeed, the fact that the case has gone to court at all illustrates just how much money there is to be made writing dodgy conspiracy theories and crap thrillers.

Comments

[timill]

See Ham v Chicken...

[watervole.livejournal.com]

My assumption is that they're hoping the case will generate a lot of sales for their conspiricy theory book. Publicity is all.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

That may be so, although it's not impossible that if they lose and the Judge decides that they brought the case as a publicity stunt, then they may have to pay enhanced (so-called 'indemnity') costs for the other side as, in effect, punishment for abusing the Court.

[It's not an exact comparison, but there was a famous libel case in 1970 - Broome v Cassell - where the defendants were found to have been expecting to make enough money from the book in question (David Irving's The Destruction of Convoy PQ17 to cover the anticipated damages from being sued; in what was then a novel move, exemplary damages were added in effect to wipe out this profit.]

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Jack Broome, who if memory serves was the officer commanding the close escort?

Bits I've read about PQ-17 suggest that the First Sea Lord got badly rattled, in one of the prime examples of tactical micro-management by a remote senior officer. It sounds as if David Irving had already fallen into bad habits.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Yes, he was the Claimant (or Plaintiff in those days).

Sir Dudley Pound, 1SL at the time, was not a well man, which seems to have exacerbated the tendency towards caution and micromanagement that seems to have afflicted many RN officers who achieved command rank around WW1. The whole topic is analysed both engagingly and in depth by Andrew Gordon in his superb The Rules of the Game, an extended social history of the RN of that era examining the reasons for its failure to secure a victory at the Battle of Jutland.

[drplokta]

The entertainint thing about this case (it seems to me) is that the only chance Baigent & Leigh have for victory is to demonstrate that their alleged work of non-fiction is in fact made up. You can't plagiarise the truth, surely.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I'd have thought so.

Otherwise, this case could be the end of the Historical Novel.

Oh, and if the plaintiffs do declare their own work to be one of imaginative fiction, then surely they could be countersued for passing-off? In which case, their publishers could face a nasty bill.

Oh, hold on, they're suing their publishers. Is this the most ill-advised courtcase since SCO vs Linux?

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Sunday's "User Friendly" seems appropriate.

But, alas, A.P. Herbert is long dead.

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

What a glorious post. Thank you :o)

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

This promises to be an entertaining case, in the professional-wrestling sense, and the idea that we might have our own correspondent present in the courtroom is simply thrilling. Too bad that won't work out.

I look forward eagerly to any further comment you may offer on this Clash of the Buffoons.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

What fun. Am envious..

[sqferryman.livejournal.com]

I was watching the start of the case on the news and I remember the report stating that there was some case law that applied. The book in question was 'Spear' by James Herbert. I wasn't paying that much attention but the gist was that 'Spear' was a work of fiction that made use of a work which claimed to have the true story of the Spear of Destiny. I haven't been able to find any reference to the case in any of the online reports though.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I don't remember how the actual judgement went, but I do know that subsequent editions of The Spear were significantly cut.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

According to this article:

In that case there were 50 alleged instances of language copying, but when the court ruled Herbert had breached copyright law, it specified that he wrote the prologues in the book "using the same characters, incidents and interpretation of the significance of events".

In other words, Herbert stole the form in which Trevor Ravenscroft's conclusions were expressed, which is protected by copyright law. Baigent and Leigh are arguing that Brown stole the conclusions, which does not seem to be protected.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Its very interesting that this case has come to court just before the Hollywood movie version hits the cinemas. So this whole thing is generating a lot of extra free publicity.

How does 10k a day plus preparation costs stack up against the marketing budget of the movie? I have this worrying feeling that its cheap in comparison...

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

It's certainly the most effective way (though not the cheapest or safest) I can think of to alert the Brown-reading masses that their book is the real "Real Da Vinci Code". There's a chunky market for Da Vinci cash-ins, which are all effectively 3rd hand HBHG cash-ins, and I can understand them for being wound up by that.
The revelation that he gets his research done at arms' length by his wife explains quite a lot about his writing style (though not its arms-length relationship with spoken English dialogue).

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I did read one of Brown's other books, and if he married his wife for her skills as a researcher he should ask for his money back.

At least Tom Clancy believes the manufacturers.

[sqferryman.livejournal.com]

If the judge rumbles you then you're in big doo-doo. It has been tried before and the parties involved were made to pay substantial costs.