I'am not surprised. When I read TDVC it was rather obvious thet there were blatant rip offs of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and I was rather rurprised the authors didn't sue right away.

None of this means that The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, is not anything but the most absurd possible crap. But frankly Brown's rip off appears to me to be rather extreme. It appears to me rather obvious that Brown breached the limits of decorum in terms of blatant rip off, i.e., plagerism.

The question is not did Brown engage in a rip off but is this a rip off that has legal consequences, i.e., does Brown legally owe the authors damages?

Brown's ethical violation is in my opinion obvious and inexcusable. Whether any legal consequences flow from that I'm not sure about. After all something may be unethical but not illegal and this might be one of those cases.

Pierre