Author taken to court for plagiarism

Aug 20, 2009 08:59 GMT  ·  By
Stephenie Meyer accused of plagiarism, taken to court over “Breaking Dawn”
   Stephenie Meyer accused of plagiarism, taken to court over “Breaking Dawn”

“Breaking Dawn,” the fourth book in the “Twilight” series written by Stephenie Meyer, is not actually Meyer’s work, another female author claims in court papers. Jordan Scott, who made the claim that “Breaking Dawn” was almost identical to her “The Nocturne” a while back, is now moving forth with legal action against Meyer, taking the matter to court and asking for damages, TMZ informs.

Scott stepped forward with her claim earlier this month, sending a cease-and-desist letter to Meyer’s publishers, in which she cited all resemblances she had found between “Breaking Dawn” and “The Nocturne.” Since she had written her book in 2003 and Meyer only came out with hers years later, the conclusion could be only one: she had been ripped off, Scott said in the letter. Now, she’s taking the dispute to court, where she’s also asking for financial damages and an injunction on all “Breaking Dawn” sales.

“Jordan Scott claims in her lawsuit, filed today in federal court, that she began writing a novel ‘in the vampire genre’ when she was just 15 – back in 2003. The novel was published in 2006 and called ‘The Nocturne.’ Scott claims the 4th installment of Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ series lifted her work. She says Meyer’s book – ‘Breaking Dawn’ is a ‘significant literary departure from [her] early books...’ She says it seems the book is ‘written by a teenager.’ Yes, Scott was a teenager when she wrote ‘The Nocturne.’” TMZ writes of the lawsuit just filed against Meyer, one of the most popular and commercially successful authors of the moment.

Aside from the similarities reported in the cease-and-desist letter (which you can see here), Scott also says the difference between book number four and the previous three clearly indicates Meyer is not the author of it. Moreover, “Breaking Dawn” and “The Nocturne,” her novel, “show striking, articulable and substantial similarities in the... plot lines, themes, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters, sequence of events, ideas and other similarities.”

As we also initially reported, Scott was determined from the start to take Meyer to court. At the time, Meyer’s publishers insisted the idea was frivolous, amounting to nothing more than just a desperate attempt on Scott’s behalf at getting media attention for her own novel, piggybacking on Meyer’s international fame. Scott also initially said that she would not ask for damages: according to the court documents, she has changed her mind, since she now wants compensation, as well as a court order to impound all the “Breaking Dawn” books that are now being sold.