talkmagic.co.uk

Not sure if this has been posted before as I don't spend much time here lately (studying has got the better of me), but this is interesting...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21861418

I was just about to post this myself. An interesting but somewhat depressing read.

Why can't some international law be put into place for protecting the secrets. especially with tricks that use gimmicks ans specific props. could that not be put into copyright laws, for example if i copied a dvd i'd be breaking copyright, so if a magic trick gets a cheap knock off made then that should be the same.

Anjorno wrote:Why can't some international law be put into place for protecting the secrets. especially with tricks that use gimmicks ans specific props. could that not be put into copyright laws, for example if i copied a dvd i'd be breaking copyright, so if a magic trick gets a cheap knock off made then that should be the same.

There's a problem in that you only need a small variation on something for it to no longer be protected. Cheap China knock offs are generally quite a bit different from original ideas so can legally be classed as another product.
If you sell it under the same trademarked name then you get an issue of course.

Think of it like Coca-Cola
There are plenty of other drinks branded as "cola" essentially parading around being a cheap version of Coke. And there's nothing that can be legally done to stop this. Unless someone put their roller cola in a bottle labled as Coca-Cola!

Between copyrights, patents and trademarks magic just really doesn't get much of a legal foothold. But it's the nature of the beast

The other problem with a law is that before you go through the lengths to create it, you have to figure out how to inforce it. In the magic industry enforcing such a law, and an international law would be too costly to enforce. So what would be the point? And there already are laws. But again, go enforce them.