talkmagic.co.uk

My take on it is this:

I do a lot of discos, it has been my profession for the last twenty-several years. The tools of my trade have been, for a long time, CDs, vinyl before that (7" singles and albums to the oldies here )

I buy the tools of my trade, the same as a mechanic would by spanners and rachets, and an electrician would buy screwdrivers and wire cutters. The difference between my profession and most others is that I can download my tools online, you cannot download a screwdriver.

If I download my tools for free, the makers of my tools will not make any money, so they will go out of business, which in turn will put me out of business.

It is common sense - if you want a tool to do your job - buy it! You are earning money from it, the creator deserves his little piece too. If the Jay Sankeys and Max Mavens of this world get all their material ripped off then they will stop creating and we will be the losers.

Most of the routines I have bought I have changed to suit my style, or I hav come up with alternate handlings to cover possible exposure and I am sure most people have done the same - some like the DL, others prefer the velvet turnover - by all means adapt a trick/routine to suit your style, but don't rip off the inventor!

You know what they say about biting the hand that feeds.....

Ok. This is a little off topic. What if the trick isn't marketed for sale? Is it ok to perform if you figure it out?

What if the effect is only camera tricks and you want to film yourself doing it for a promotional video or whatever?

I know, I only added more questions ... so how about one more?

Can you sell a trick that only employs camera tricks? If so I could make a ton of money.

I could see it now. Just selling a pamphlet that tells you to get a camera.

When feeling creative I like to sit down with a deck of cards and try something new. The first thing I then do is think of a trick I'd like to see, whether or not I'd seen it done before. Perhaps I'd like to spread a deck of cards, have someone pick any card, and it be the only red card in a blue deck, or the only card in the deck with a face, or something like that. (This is something I'm currently working on, in case you're interested...)

I'll sit and play with a deck or two and try and work out a method for doing the trick, sometimes working out a few different ways of getting the same effect, and deciding which one I like best. I then usually show it to a few magician friends of mine to see what they think, what they can spot, and how they think I could improve it.

So, let's assume I "invent" a trick in this manner, but one of my friends says that the EXACT same method is being taught on a DVD he recently bought. Do I still have the right to perform it? I worked it out myself, but the trick is hardly revolutionary, so there's a chance I'd seen it, or something like it, before. Does my ignorance of a commercial teaching aid give me the right to perform this trick? If so, how would my possible knowledge of the trick already existing affect my right to perform it, given that I had still worked out the mechanisms of the trick for myself.

To use the car analogy, if I build myself a car from a collection of parts in my garage, and then I find out the car I've made is exactly the same as a commercial car I've never seen before, should I be expected to never drive it, as it's not solely my design?

(apologies for the overly long post, I tend to ramble)

I think there is a big difference between unwittingly inventing something that has already been invented and deliberately ripping off someone else's hard work.

It is highly likely that we are going to think of something that has already been done and work out own method - that method may even be the same. I can see nothing wrong with that - how can we be sure only one person invented the wheel - fact is, we can't (and it probably wasn't)

It is wrong though to see how someone does something and then blatantly rip them off.