Brown Wins Again

Publisher’s Weekly reports that my friend Lew Perdue’s case against Dan Brown was thrown out by the Federal Court of Appeals, which confirmed a prior decision by
Judge George Daniels that "no reasonable trier of fact could find the
works substantially similar."

In a statement released today from Random House, which
publishes Brown through its Doubleday Broadway imprint, Doubleday’s
president and publisher Stephen Rubin said: "We are tremendously
pleased that now two Federal courts have found in favor of Dan Brown
and that there were clearly no grounds for the claims against him."

No word yet from Lew’s camp or on his two Brown-related blogs.

3 thoughts on “Brown Wins Again”

  1. Actually, I’ve just heard myself … it seems as if Random House apparently got the opinion from the court first, issued a news release etc … and my lawyers are still trying to get the opinion …
    Anyway, I’m up in the wilds of British Columbia north of Vancouver so this is new to me … Anyway, I have talked with my lawyers.
    The Second Circuit Court of Appeals violated its own rules regarding summary judgement and about considering works as a whole in copyright infringement cases and has affirmed the District Court ruling.
    We are currently preparing our petition to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider the case.
    The biggest issue (other than the Second Circuit not following its own rules) is the fact that the Ninth Circuit out here on the West Coast has standards regarding infringement that are significantly different from the Second Circuit’s especially when it comes to interpreting the lay reader role with regard to summary judgement.
    The 9th consistently denies summary judgement (allowing a trial on the facts) even in cases where there are far more significant issues and far fewer of them than we have shown so far in our case.
    And while the 9th has a reputation as the most overturned circuit in the nation, the Supreme Court as consistently upheld its rulings in copyright infringement.
    In short, there is no question that I would have gotten a trial had this happened on the West Coast. But I didn’t sue them.
    Random House knew this, was pissed at all the facts I was putting on the web and sued me in their friendly local court instead.

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  2. Between this and the many other books that look so much like Dan Brown’s novel, did Brown write any of that book? It might not be black and white, but it sure flirts in the gray, dark gray, area. If I did this when I was in college, I would have been kicked out!

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