Hey there Adam. I'm new to the Café' and I must say that it's great that they feature guests such as yourself. I recently viewed a demo of Frozen and thought it was pretty cool. I feel I should mention that I came across a post in another forum that I found completely in bad form. It was someone who had either purchased your effect, or happened upon it illegally. This person expressed no shame in revealing the secret as soon as he/she acquired it. My personal thought on this is one of total disgust. Every person in the unmentioned forum rejoiced in the revelation and couldn't wait to show it off. Whenever I read these posts I can't help but wonder about the future of magic. These people give absolutely no thought to what the consequences might be. I fear I might be strolling down the street one day, performing, and someone will scoff and say, "Oh yea, I was web surfing the other day and some kid was revealing that one". I know that it's inevitable. I would appreciate any of your thoughts on this matter.

Gadfly, thanks for your comments. I'm honored to be the featured magician this month. I'm not a "magic star" like most who get to do this.

I have mixed feeling about what you write. There are some that say that the measure of your success can be equated to the number of people ripping you off.

Like you, I happen to be really disturbed by this pattern. If people truly understood the ripple effect this has in magic, they wouldn't do it. The end result is that the creators, like myself, will stop putting out magic. It is already happening.

I was with a known magician in Los Angeles two weeks ago and he showed me one of the MOST AMAZING things I've ever seen. No one will ever see it because this person refuses to release it for this exact reason.

When a person buys magic they are supporting that creator. Without that support the process stops.

As you know, the music business has suffered for the same reason. Everyone stopped buying CD's and started using Napster. The result was the almost total collapse of the music business and the folding of almost every major label. This ripples down and affects all struggling musicians. There are hardly any record deals anymore. (I'm one of the lucky ones)

The movie business got hit hard too. This ripples down and affects your struggling actors who can't get parts because the studios are afraid to take risks.

So what do we do about it? The same people who download free magic are the exact people who are going to suffer later.

Thanks for the headsup though. I'll pop into "that" forum and say hello for the both of us!

Magic thieves are under the mistaken impression that inventors make such obscene gobs of money that the theivery and exposure will not even be felt by them and they will continue to release their ideas no matter what. This is not the case.

Right you are. I spent several thousand dollars researching Frostbite/ Frozen. So, I hope to break even on this release in the long run.

AND the companies like Ellusionist really suffer.

What do we do, Geoff?

One of my pet peeves is walking past someone on the sidewalk and seeing them with about fifty bootleg DVD's spread out on the ground. Folks know darn well that these movies are bootlegs, especially when the movie they're buying is being released in theaters the same day.

I used to think that maybe these people didn't understand the severity of their actions; but the older I get the more I realize that most people do understand right from wrong, but just don't care.

I don't have a creative bone in my body, and therefore, I'll never be hurt financially by these rip-off artists. But I do have empathy for the individuals who make their income from their creative talents. I'm especially saddened to hear when magicians are inclined to keep their wonderful creations to themselves or a very select inner circle, instead of sharing with guys like me whose talents are in other areas of magic, such as performance. I don't blame the creators, however, but rather the blatant opportunists out there.

The sad fact of the matter is, as long as the torrent sites are out there, EVERYONE is fair game...nobody is safe.