London - A fresh legal battle over Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is being fought at the High Court in London where the world's two biggest music companies are in dispute over recordings relating to the film.
Universal Music Thursday applied for a High Court injunction to ban Sony BMG Music Entertainment from distributing in Britain a CD called Music Inspired by Da Vinci.
Lawyers for Universal complained that Sony was trying to 'pass off' the album as the official soundtrack of the film, due for general release Friday after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Both companies released Da Vinci-related recordings in Britain on May 15.
Universal, which expects to sell about 400,000 copies of the official soundtrack music, alleges Sony is using imagery connected to the book and film to deceive buyers.
Sony denies acting illegally and insists it has simply seized a marketing opportunity.
It contends Universal's rights are limited to the film's official soundtrack and do not extend to associated promotional material or the general religious themes and imagery explored in The Da Vinci Code.
A decision by a High Court judge on a temporary injunction against Sony, pending a full later in the year, is expected Friday.
Last month, Dan Brown and his publishers were cleared of allegations that he plagiarised his ideas from an earlier work, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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