‘Da Vinci Code’ lawsuit settled

The bestselling thriller “The Da Vinci Code” does not infringe on the copyrights of a book published in 2000 by another author, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels said Dan Brown’s book exploring codes hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci’s artwork is not substantially similar to “Daughter of God,” by Lewis Perdue.

Brown’s book “is simply a different story,” Daniels said in a ruling issued in New York this week.

He also ruled out any copyright violations of Perdue’s 1983 novel “The Da Vinci Legacy.”

Brown and publisher Random House Inc. last year asked the court for a declaratory judgment that Brown’s 2003 novel does not infringe on Perdue’s work after Perdue threatened to sue. In a countersuit, Perdue asked the judge to rule there was infringement and award him $150 million in damages.