[alyasa]

For one thing, the subject matter in both are completely unrelated to each other, though they both are guilty of the same crime of dishonesty, of presenting something as truth when it is otherwise. In this case however, both have valid points somewhat in that James Frey could always argue artistic license and Dan Brown could always argue 'fair use'. I for one think that it is criminal that even after such allegations of dishonesty on both parties, they continue to rack up sales. What is going on with Joe Consumer?
EDIT: But after giving it a thought, it seems as though Dan Brown has committed the bigger evil. Being primarily an entertainer; his Da Vinci Code, an obvious stab at the pop-culture brass ring; he has made the sloppiest mistake an entertainer could make: Not caring enough to be original. The best entertainers have always been the ones who have come up with something new or taken an old, reliable premise and made it into something that is entirely their own. It seems by copying passages wholesale and plagiarizing so blatantly, he has become; in my eyes; a hack, a total apathetic mass-culture teat puller. His trash is beyond redemption and has become nothing more than a cynical attempt at mega-entrepenuership.