BRITAIN: Three weeks after a British court passed judgment in the copyright case involving Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, a lawyer has uncovered what may be a secret message buried in the text of the ruling.
Lawyer Dan Tench noticed some letters in the judgment had been italicised, and it suddenly dawned on him that they spelled a phrase that included the name of the judge, "smith code".
Justice Peter Smith, who during the trial displayed a sense of humour unusual in the rarified world of bewigged barristers and ancient tradition, appears to have embraced the mysterious world of codes and conspiracy that runs through the novel.
"I thought it was a mistake, that there were some stray letters that had been italicised because the word-processor had gone wrong," Mr Tench said.
The lawyer initially told the London Times that apparently random letters in the judge's ruling appeared in italics.
Wouldn't it be clever if the judge had embedded a secret message in the text? The Times ran a joky item.
"And then I got an e-mail from the judge," Mr Tench said. He said Judge Smith told him to look back at the first paragraphs. The italicised letters scattered throughout the judgment spell out: "smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz".
Those in the first paragraphs spell out "smith code".
But what does the rest mean? The novel, and upcoming movie starring Tom Hanks, are about a secret code that reveals ancient mysteries about Jesus Christ.
Judge Smith, who ruled that author Brown had not plagiarised his hugely popular thriller from another book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, has so far not given any clues to his own mystery code.
For now, the judge is not speaking.
His clerk said he is refusing interviews. She would not confirm whether there truly was a secret message embedded in his judgment.
But she did confirm that he is, generally speaking, a humorous type of person.