YA!!!

If you had ever read the initial allegations of plagiarism, you knew this lawsuit didn’t have merit, but still it has to be a relief for Stephenie Meyer. Now that she can put this behind her, maybe, just maybe, she can write Midnight Sun? (Cross your fingers.)

A judge of the United States District Court has dismissed author Jordan Scott’s claim that Twilight series author Stephenie Meyer plagiarized small portions of her fourth book, Breaking Dawn, from Scott’s vampire novel The Nocturne. In a statement, Meyer’s publisher, Hachette Book Group, says, “In his ruling, [Judge Otis D. Wright II] stated that the two works have little in common and that the ‘characters in the two works are vastly different.’ The decision admonishes Scott for ‘the deceptive presentation of the alleged similarities’ and notes that she ‘has twice manipulated aspects of the subject works in order to create the appearance of similarity.’ While an attempt to ride on someone else’s success may not be surprising, it is encouraging that the courts and the public are not so easily misled. This judgment confirms what we have known all along — Breaking Dawn is a wholly original work by Stephenie Meyer and this was a frivolous lawsuit brought for the purposes of publicizing the plaintiff’s personal publishing aspirations. Hachette Book Group and Stephenie Meyer are pleased to be able to put this case behind us.”

J. Craig Williams, a lawyer for Scott, says his client isn’t prepared to close the book on her claim: “Courts serve the function of resolving disputes between people who disagree over issues such as copyright infringement. We are pleased that the judge very carefully made a side-by-side comparison of The Nocturne and Breaking Dawn and issued a considered opinion regarding his decision. At this point, Jordan Scott is studying her options regarding continued prosecution of her case against Stephanie Meyer.”

Source

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