Hello again guys .
I recently have found a site that freely exposes David Blaine tricks, David Copperfield effects, card tricks, close up, levitations, and lots of marketed effects.
Someone know a way to stop these kinds of sites? It made me sad and angry .

Best regards.

Keep dreaming.

Gosman

Another site's been in the alt.magic news lately. It had a two-page scan of a 12-page booklet released recently. Just enough for the basics, but not enough to really perform it correctly. The only thing I can see that it did was to deprive the originator of his income. A few letters to the site owner from the originator and others, and the offending pages disappeared.

It's a never ending battle, and we have to "get them where it hurts" (ISP revoking their site, lawsuits for copyright violations, etc...) if we ever want to have a chance at winning against these guys.

David

The only way to stop exposure is to not expose magic yourself.

As individual magicians, we can't stop exposure. No matter how hard we try, there's always one more out there. We can lessen the burden by not doing it ourselves and hopefully, other magicians will accept that as their own behaviour based on our example.

Best Regards,
Ray

Exposure will always continue, not from magicians but from the public whom wants the answer, not the question. People will always want to know how to do the trick and magicians have to come up with alternative ways of fooling these lay people. What these people are doing is depriving themselves of that magical moment when the trick is done. Too bad because they don't know what their missing.

Only some people want to know how it's done. I've talked to a lot of laypeople who say they DON'T want to know.

I don't think we can ever stop exposure, but exposure in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. At the very least, it impels us to be constantly innovative, more creative, and subtler.


TCR

My views on exposure is that it is OK ONLY when the effect is my own. Personally I love to share my creations rather than sell them. My 2 cents.

X

Looks like there's a small string started here on exposure. X-treme says it's OK to expose if it's his own effect. Well, I suppose if you're demonstrating to magicians, that's OK but I think if you do it with laymen, there's a possibility of them relating your routine to someone else's unless your effect is so much different. I like to show my effects to laymen but when asked how I did it, my basic answer is "very carefully and very well". The laymen really don't want to know. It's just a stock question.

Dave

I fully agree with you Topsinmagic, I should have stated that I email or PM my ideas to magicians young, old, new, just born, does not matter much to me. If the person shows an interest in learning the effect and takes the time to email me, I am willing to share. I have a set of three tricks that I like to pass around, however my trick to impress the ladies is my biggest hit.

Care,
X

I think I just saw the same site you're talking about gosman and it really sickens me. After all the hard work that goes into creating these wonderful effects, it's sad that people have such disrespect for the art.

On my site, CardMSG Magic, I used to protect all of my content to the point where it was becoming a real hassle for people who were seriously interested in magic. Well, now, I've removed all restrictions to my pages and people can freely view essays, effects, videos, etc...

Now my point is not to expose anyone elses stuff, but to provide a place for people serious in magic to learn and grow. I know there will be people visiting who just want to learn a quick trick, but that's fine because what they'll find are tricks that they haven't seen David Blaine do.

My problem is when people see a trick on TV, or a marketed effect and insist on or beg for someone to just give it to them. There's enough people like this in the world that we really don't need sites out there exposing things even more. It just creates a bunch of little punk monsters who will butcher these effects and annoy people to the point where it will begin affecting those of us who truly try to entertain.

It especially bothers me when I sit in my car at lunch in the Texas heat trying to create new effects, or spend endless hours practicing and tweaking my magic and then see the these sites that are "giving away" the secrets to someone else hard work. Those people who have sat in hot cars learning, stayed up late creating, researched, practiced, ect...

Anyway, sorry for the griping, I think I'm better now.

P.S.
My good friend in magic, Dante King, has written several essays on my site about this very subject, so if you're interested, you should check them out. The first really good one on this is, Do a little work! and his current one, Web-based magic. Enjoy!

Funny thing is, I get tons of e-mail from "people" that want things exposed or to trade tricks.

I just recieved a e-mail earlier this week from a kid that wanted to trade effects. I explained that I am against this as hard working magicians make their living from sales, and this is used to support families and so forth... Well the little ***** replies, that I am gay and that he does not care that magicians are cheated out of money and that I need to get a life. His only joy in magic comes from trading tricks.

I used to treat even the most abusive punks like this nicely, as they could be potential customers. Well not any more. The reply to this attack from a kid that can't even spell small words correcly, can not be posted here as I would be banned. No more mister nice guy to the scum that float at the bottom of the gene pool.

I am thinking of putting up a wall of shame on my site with the correspondence and e-mail address of these idiots for the world to laugh at. It's a shame that the net has created people that think they can say and do whatever they want due to the nature of the net beng faceless and relatively nameless.

If this kid would have said these things to my face, I would have back handed this punk into next week. It is obvious that he has no parental supervision, or manners.

We must not "walk past" any post, site or Instant message that demonstrates this exposure/trading behavior. I feel if we, police ourselves and let the offenders know how we feel, our art will only grow stronger and the punks will go back to the video games from which they came.

I agree with your posting of the exposing e-mails, Dante. One suggestion, though. On the same page, ask if anybody else has recieved nasty e-mails like you, and if they'd like to "trade" them! The irony would be delicious!

The only reason I am hesitant is that people that are looking for exposure will have a ready source to find like minds (well like mindlessness).

I agree with rude wannabe children!! I've gotten my share of nasty emails from little kids as young as 7!

A lot of time if a magician I know wants to know "how it's done", my usual reply is, "I'm not sure how it is done but you can try this...". I am usually able to make up a guideline for an effect from the description of the audience's veiwpoint. Though I go on to say that it came off the top of my head and they have to tweek the idea until it works. Out of the ten I've made up, two where successful the way I created it.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree with you guys, those kids are real jerks, but not all kids are bad (being myself 13). First of all, those kids were asking the wrong questions. They should be asking, "what books or videos can I learn those effects from?". I totally agree with you.
-Alan

This stems from not only ignorance, but a total lack of interest in the art's history and purpose.

I get lots of IMs from these kids regularly and 90% of them unhesitatingly insult me in response to my "Sorry, I don't trade anything, but i'd be glad to help you and give any advice, tips, etc. that I can." Yeah, I'm a real a-hole!

I also agree with Dante on the finer points.

When it comes down to it, there are those of us who go beyond watching the TV specials and find an artform with a massive community, an aura, legends to speak of and knowledge to share. There will ALWAYS be those who attempt to exploit it. It goes with music and other mediums the same.

peace.

It's not just in magic fellas, it's the state of our society at the moment, and the Internet doesn't help matters.

It's easy for folks to remain nameless(Or use phoney screen handles), talk bad about others, etc while hiding behind their keyboards at home. Stealing and exposing effects just kind of goes with the territory.

Most people would never walk into your home and steal something, yet these same folks think nothing of stealing graphics, effects, etc from websites. Think about that for a moment.

Most of the exposers, if put in a room full of magicians would keep their mouth shut. But once again, behind the keyboard, they are indeed very brave and opinionated.

If cities did not have police patroling the streets, crime would be much worse. But with the threat of prison or worse, only the very bad or desperate dare risk it.

Without a strong military presence, countries would be invaded by the wicked and evil of the world. Only the totally insane risk the consequences of attacking a well armed nation.

Perhaps the same line of thinking is warranted in the magic industry. As long as there are no consequences, theft will continue, exposure will run rapant, and discussions like this will continue.
But I digress.

Steve, well said. Fortunately, we do have some resourse in society to police our neighborhoods and offer some inkling of protection.

However, all to often, I would say that magicians on the web, turn a blind eye or won't take the time to drop an e-mail to help stop the bad doings and actions of the people in question.

I for one am an active supporter and protector of our art. I will not click past a web site that is doing immoral or illegal actions on the web. I recently had to threaten a hosting company with a law suit if they did not shut down a web site that was exposing and giving away my copyrighted material and a host of other magicians. It's strange how they were non-responsive until they were going to be involved, like it or not. It took many e-mails but finally the offending site was closed.

Yes, I had a serious vested interest in this transaction, but I think all magicians do! If we walk by wrong-doing and poor behavior, we have bought it. It's really amazing how a group can bring about change. If we all act on this type of behavior, the message to the punks will be clear and we can help clean up our society, starting in our on-line magical communities.

This exposing thing is really getting out of hand.

One of the worst offenders I have found is here:

http://members.aol.com/maskedmagi

It shamelessly exposes Copperfields Statute of Liberty Vanish, Blaines levitation, the Origami Box and other major illusions.

When will this blatent exposing stop?

Payne, I'm assuming you meant this as a joke. This is an old web site and anyone who really believes that David Copperfield was swimming and not flying or that magicians can squeeze up to 30 doves into the size of MacNuggets should also be on the look out for the bridge I'm selling. As a dove worker, I'd love to be able to make my birds as small as MacNuggets.

Dave

The wall of shame idea sounds great.