You Cannot Copyright An Idea
I'm watching the Dan Brown case with great interest. When I started writing with an eye towards getting paid, I found myself paying attention to "intellectual property" discussions.
Some things were no brainers. I stopped getting music from Kazaa and started buying it from iTunes. I toss a few bucks in the tip jars of great writers on the internet. I don't buy strips under any circumstances.
Plagiarism is not quite as simple. Well, it is when we're talking about someone like Jayson Blair who relied on ctrl-c, ctrl-v. But what about inspiration? A news item that sparks interest? What about a short story, or a memoir? A story based on a friend's cocktail story? If a friend of mine sighs and says, "I had this great idea for a book," and then never writes that book, can I write it and keep all the profits? Even if I can, should I?
I'm still puzzling out the gray areas, but this Dan Brown case doesn't seem to me to be very gray. He took a relatively common idea, did a metric fuck ton of research, and whipped it all together into a thriller novel. A highly readable, page turner of a novel with a plot so intricate that other writers just stare in slackjawed wonder.
Even if the takeoff point for The Da Vinci Code was in fact The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, I suggest that it doesn't matter. If you look up the latter on Amazon, you'll note that one of the reviewers said it "...has all the elements of an international thriller." It seems obvious to me that it was just a matter of time before someone wrote... an international thriller... with the same plot line. There's a world of difference between a scholarly take on an interesting conspiracy theory and a gripping bit of pulp fiction, requiring totally different writing skills from their respective authors.
Finally - would this case be in court if Brown wasn't making a billion dollars from the book and the upcoming movie? A great big pile of money is always the perfect freak bait. (Warning - turn down your speakers.)
Anything else I could say on this topic is already written here, and I would hate to plagiarize and all that. Her post can be summed up as "ideas are cheap and easy, writing compelling pop fiction is hard."
We'll just have to see. For my part, it seems to me that anyone with an education and liberal grant funding could have written HBHG, and only a writer could have pulled off TDC. Your mileage may vary.
Some things were no brainers. I stopped getting music from Kazaa and started buying it from iTunes. I toss a few bucks in the tip jars of great writers on the internet. I don't buy strips under any circumstances.
Plagiarism is not quite as simple. Well, it is when we're talking about someone like Jayson Blair who relied on ctrl-c, ctrl-v. But what about inspiration? A news item that sparks interest? What about a short story, or a memoir? A story based on a friend's cocktail story? If a friend of mine sighs and says, "I had this great idea for a book," and then never writes that book, can I write it and keep all the profits? Even if I can, should I?
I'm still puzzling out the gray areas, but this Dan Brown case doesn't seem to me to be very gray. He took a relatively common idea, did a metric fuck ton of research, and whipped it all together into a thriller novel. A highly readable, page turner of a novel with a plot so intricate that other writers just stare in slackjawed wonder.
Even if the takeoff point for The Da Vinci Code was in fact The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, I suggest that it doesn't matter. If you look up the latter on Amazon, you'll note that one of the reviewers said it "...has all the elements of an international thriller." It seems obvious to me that it was just a matter of time before someone wrote... an international thriller... with the same plot line. There's a world of difference between a scholarly take on an interesting conspiracy theory and a gripping bit of pulp fiction, requiring totally different writing skills from their respective authors.
Finally - would this case be in court if Brown wasn't making a billion dollars from the book and the upcoming movie? A great big pile of money is always the perfect freak bait. (Warning - turn down your speakers.)
Anything else I could say on this topic is already written here, and I would hate to plagiarize and all that. Her post can be summed up as "ideas are cheap and easy, writing compelling pop fiction is hard."
We'll just have to see. For my part, it seems to me that anyone with an education and liberal grant funding could have written HBHG, and only a writer could have pulled off TDC. Your mileage may vary.
posted by Sanya at 2:38 PM
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