Authors contest plot origin of ‘Da Vinci Code’

An author insisted in a British court Wednesday that there were major similarities between his nonfiction book and Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” -- but conceded there were also substantial differences.

“We were writing historical conjecture, and Mr. Brown was writing a novel,” said Michael Baigent, co-author of “The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail.” “One would expect their perspectives to be marginally different, if not substantially different.”

Nonetheless, he said, the similarities were “fairly specific.”

In a lawsuit against Random House in London, Baigent and co-author Richard Leigh claim Brown’s book “appropriated the architecture” of their work, which explores theories that Jesus married Mary Magdalene. The third author, Henry Lincoln, is not involved in the case. Random House lawyers argue that the ideas in dispute are so general they are not protected by copyright.