Had Dan Browns won his plagiarism case in 2016 also? Probably not.

PriorMart – 2004-04-16: In the case over plagiarism in bestseller author Dan Browns latest work „The Da Vinci Code“ the British court of law rejected the claims in favor of Brown. But it also named weaknesses in the evidence, that should be considered for the years to come. The court further expressed, that it does not reject the point, that Brown has used ideas and action strings from the work of the plaintiffs.

On their way to judgment the court examined each individual text passage in order to find out, whether the usage of the plaintiffs ideas has taken place in a way

that justifies an offense in the meaning of the law. It was also considered that the plaintiffs, in particular Baigent, could not explain comprehensible, what contents of their non-fiction book actually presented verifiable facts in front of the court.

The low appearance of the plaintiffs did improve Browns prospects. However, the court also doubted that, as Brown stated, the author has used the plaintiffs work for the first time at the end of the writing process. A reconstruction of the novel development could have cleared this fact but for unknown reasons hardly any interim stages of the novel existed.

Despite the missing proof the court decided in favor of the accused. It seems usual that in the process of writing a novel, preceding versions get overwritten.

But would the court have taken the same position 10 years in the future?

Today's technology makes it possible to secure digital works and interim stages on a daily or at least weekly basis and to authenticate the time of creation by a notarial deposition. By depositing at one of the most qualified and trusted notaries of the world, a German notary, the proof is strainable and the work is secured safely and very discreet. A few years ago this kind of protection would have been time consuming and affordable only for a few. Today it is as easy as email checking and the cost is about 6 Dollar a month, depending on the details even lower.

For a bestseller author as Dan Brown and also for every writer with serious ambitions the protection of evidence by notarial deposits is realizable and financially reasonable in the eyes of a court of law. It should be doubted that in a future case it will again be considered usual, when interim stages of a work and evidence for the moment of creation can not be delivered. It would rather look like the evidence could support the plaintiffs point, which will certainly influence the courts judgment.

While is accepted today, that copyright protection begins with the publishing or the registration of a work, in the year 2016 it will be expected that authors secure evidence also during the process of writing. If the entire process was moved 10 years into the future, Dan Brown could either have simply and impressively proven his innocence or – he had lost.

About

The PriorMart AG is a technology firm with offices in Potsdam and Brandenburg a.d.H, both close to Berlin, Germany. The company was founded in May 2000 by Peter Schilling, Frank Schilling and Jan Vogt under the name of iCook.de AG. Over a 5-year-period the company operated an onlineshop for international specialties, several recipe websites and also a cook community. Among other things the iCook.de AG was the inventor and first supplier of menu packages, international recipes including the rare ingredients. After a brand transfer the company changed its name in PriorMart AG in august 2005 and since then dedicated themselves to the development of an e-service for the improvement and simplification of idea protection.

Under the domain www.priormart.com the company offers a copyright protection service, where customers can secure digital works 24/7 by depositing them at a German notary. The transfer takes place by means of a certified software, announced to patent. This software guarantees the integrity and security of the data during the entire process. Both final works and interim stages can be deposited and secured. If desired by the customer, files will be stored recallable and the customer can request them when he wants to. This is included in the offered deal as well as the upload of unlimited files of unlimited size.

PriorMart is looking for employees in its offices in Potsdam and Brandenburg a.d.H.


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PriorMart AG
Gutenbergstr. 61
14467 Potsdam
Germany

http://www.priormart.com

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CEO: Peter Schilling
head of board: Dr. Klaus Ellbogen
HRB 13887 P, Amtsgericht Potsdam
gegründet 05/2000, founded in may 2005

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Press contact:
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