Wuxtry! Wuxtry! Dan Brown Freed!

The Guardian reports (among others, but this one looks the most complete and newsy) that the case against Dan Brown for plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code has been dismissed.

The claimants were additionally forced to pay 85% of the legal costs of the defendants, Random House. I know nearly nothing about British law, but that looks like a spanking to me.

And everyone in publishing breathes a sigh of relief. I don't know anyone who thought these guys had a serious case, but you can never predict what will happen in a courtroom. If their claim had held, it would have criminalized basic writing research -- or, more likely, created a massive market for more lawsuits, as the law tried to work out what was and was not acceptable practice.

It was a bad suit, but it looks like we got the right verdict. My compliments to Mr. Justice Peter Smith.