THE TRIAL CONTINUES:

French kings drawn into Da Vinci clash

By Alan Hamilton (The Times)

Copyright claimant wilts in the witness box as the books are subjected to a line-by-line comparison

ALTERNATELY sucking the end of his pen and toying with his luxuriant moustache, Mr Justice Peter Smith was engrossed in his paperback copy of The Da Vinci Code, thick with yellow page markers.

The judge had clearly acquainted himself thoroughly with the text of Dan Brown’s blockbusting novel during a six-day adjournment of the hearing in which the authors of a previous book are claiming infringement of copyright, alleging that Mr Brown stole much of his plot from them.

Yesterday’s proceedings in the High Court got down to line-by-line comparisons between DVC and The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, published in 1982. ...

Grant Macaskill pointed me to the best line in today's article:

The arguments moved on to car chases, of which there is at least one in DVC and none in HBHG.