Once This Is Done, Umberto Eco Has Something to Say

Lewis Perdue published a book called The DaVinci Legacy in 1983. Dan Brown...well, you've seen The DaVinci Code. So has Lewis Perdue. He's not happy, and he's suing for copyright infringement. The San Francisco Chronicle does a good job of sorting out the legal issues in addition to letting Perdue make his case in public.

"The whole thing is made more laborious by the fact that both authors seem to keep rewriting the same book."

It's true: The version of DV Legacy reissued two months ago is significantly revised from the '83 edition, and the other novel Perdue claims Brown lifted from, Daughter of God, first appeared in 1985 as The Linz Testament. One of these days, Perdue's going to get it right...unless, by some fluke, he actually beats Brown in court, in which case he could always put away his typewriter and live off the other guy's royalties.