Court says 'inspiration' does not infringe

Last month, the world learned a little bit about copyright law when a court in Great Britain ruled that Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, did not infringe the copyright of another book from which he had received an "inspiration."  There is a difference between being inspired by another creative work and committing copyright infringement by using too much of another copyrighted work.  It is a common misconception that one can copyright an idea.  Even though The Da Vinci Code case was resolved under U.K. law, the case illustrates one of the basic principles of copyright law - that ideas are not protected.  In fact, this principle was upheld by a federal court in New York in 2005, when Brown won a declaratory judgment stating that his book did not infringe the work of another by Lewis Purdue, author of Daughter of God and The Da Vinci Legacy, that had elements similar to The Da Vinci Code.