After practicing bullet for awhile, I put it up on youtube. I posted the link in the magic Café, and they said even though it wasn't a perfect performance, a layman probably couldn't figure it out. I was wrong. Soon, I am getting comments exposing the trick. I deleted the comments, but people just make more. I sent both of them who commented on it a friendly message saying to please not expose the method of bullet.

What should I do about this? is there anyway I can report them to youtube? It's not that the performance was bad, it's just some people know the method and don't mind exposing the methods.

Unfortunately "exposure" of magic tricks is hardly an offense.

however you can ask the person who put up the video to put a password on it to make the clip "by invitation".

I think that All we can do as magicians is to not be part of the massive exposure that goes on on youtube.com. I don't understand why magicians have decided to talk shop and session in the most public forum possible. I avoid these types of situations by not having videos up on youtube, and commenting occasionally on videos telling those people to stop exposure.

Jacob Jax.

So much on youtube that exposes magic is done by young (under 18) year olds , many relatively new to magic. It is a status thing with them. They really think that they are showing how cool and smart they are by putting up the exposure. It is clear than many have watched a commercial video by the very fact that their presentation mimics such so closely. Now if they posted the actual copyrighted video they learned from there is means to get it off Youtube. But if they put it up there with a video of them doing it, not a whole lot can be done.
Like everything else that the world of the internet and computers has done, we have to learn to accept and adapt to it. As a psychologist I can tell you we have seen a huge rise in a lot of previously almost non-existent types of behaviors because the internet allows individuals who practice them to get together, encourage, and reinforce each other.
As long as the kid gets hits to his youtube exposure and his friends at school tell him how cool his youtube vid was, you can expect to see more.

Think about this. If you've been into magic for a while. Think back to the beginning. Did you ever teach people how you did it just for the attention? When you don't know better and don't realize that when they keep asking "How did you do that" they will loose their excitement the moment you tell them how. But back then you might have told some people just because you feel you'll get even more credit for being so cleaver. I'm sure most of us has gone through this stage to some degree. I've ruined magic for a few friends this way back then.

Now imagine you have the power to get that "Attention" from thousands of people and actually be on "TV". Look at what some of the people are posting for those exposure videos. They mainly say, "Thank you. Give me more". So the kid (No matter their age) has received that attention and it encourages them to get more.

In another ten years or so when Internet will be free (Well not completely free because the government will find some way to profit form it) this will start to go down somewhat. Right now anyone can go to a magic shop and buy tricks (Or more likely go to a magic web site). But not many non-magicians are spending too much time there. Because they are getting all they need from places like youtube. Once it becomes a normal thing I believe it'll die down somewhat.

We're all catching up to this high tech era.

Just some of my thoughts on this.

Ron Jaxon

You can choose to moderate the comments so you can decide which of those get posted publicly.

Don't post your tricks on YouTube.

That's what the magicvideodepot.com is for.

Durrr.

The kids today grow up in a world where sharing is the key. Books, music, games... and magic. It's just a natural thing for them, it's how the world works. So some kid grab a video, study it frame by frame, see the secret and the do what he/ she feels natural; share it with everyone that's interested.

There are a few things you can do though:
1. Don't post your tricks on the web.

2. Don't post effects that depends on the "hand is quicker than the eye" principle because on a video that simply is not true.

3. Practice practice practice. Make sure that you under no circumstance flash anything. On live performances you usually can get away with a brief flash of a palmed ball or whatever, on a video that will be watched again and again you do not.

4. Shoot it as a live audience will see it. That is, not at your desk with the camera a few inches away (and above) your hands unless real close up is your thing.

As magicians we simply can not blame our audience for revealing our secrets if it's spotted due to whatever reason. They simply feel no obligation to keep the secret... and why should they? Usually they didn't ask for the secret, it was accidentally given to them.

And lastly, if some obnoxious person claim to know the secret then just prove him wrong. We are magicians aren't we?

Why put it on Youtube when you can get paid for it with a live performance?

The only way to prevent exposure is to do the trick perfectly, proffesionally, and hope for the best. not much more you can do.