This is in case you are interested.


http://www.petitiononline.com/32594442/petition.html

First off, it is not illegal to expose effects if they teach it in their own way. It is unethical and I don't like it much, but there is nothing you can do about it.

Second, thousands of these petitions exist, and not one of them has worked.

Third, good luck.

Kind of feels like spitting in a hurricane....

Exposure is here to stay. Practice your art and stop worrying... think about all of the times a magician has fooled you with something you had knowledge of before hand. It has happened to me many times!

I have used gimmicks and techniques that my wife and family have seen a million times and have still fooled them. why? I just use them in a different way. Creativity will always be ahead of a few curious laymen.

I agree totally with Tony.

Also many of these videos on You Tube are very, very poor on the entertainment front.

Its your personality that sells the magic, not the rather mundane secret.

Generally I also think that, unless it is a petition for a pretty great cause, petitioners come across as rather silly, so not for me. (Its also doesn't help your cause that, amongst the 500+ petitioners, nobody has yet thought about running spellcheck on your petition. English may not be your first language but come on !!!)

It happens all the time. YouTube is only one of the places where secrets are all over the place. People trade them.. it's actually pretty crazy. Almost reminds of me a sort of black market of the magic industry.

Bottom line, though, is that regulation of these types of things is far too hard and at the bottom of the priority lists for the websites that they are being exposed on.

You Tube is the demise of civilization.

You're giving it way too much power.

Hey friends, I ve posted this just in case someone wants to join. I agree wih you that my magic it s not going to be damaged by Youtube. The only thing I worry about is the rights of the creators of the techniques and tricks. A lot of us buy books or DVD s to learn magic and what that site an those people is doing is not right.

In the other hand English is not my native language (so pls pardon me for my writting!) and I m not the promoter of this site, it was only something I ve found. So if you think it s good, proceed, if not do nothing...

I signed it. I don't know if anything can or will happen, But I signed.

Tim

Personally I think it is worthless. There are just too many wanna be magi's exposing this stuff on YouTube just to be an ***.

I saw one guy TOTALLY PITIFUL !! that gave away Daryl's Jumping Knot of pakistan. I sent him a flaming E that is was not his to give away. And I knew it would do no good.. it probably just gave him more of a rise.

Fact is.. I don't think anyone (lay people) care. It is just like the little test I did back in the 90's when the mystery magician was around. I went in work the next day (everyone knew I did magic) and they were like "HA !! Now I know how you do it!"

Then I waited 3-4 weeks.. and asked them what they remembered from the show.. And that came back as nothing. They just didn't care anymore. It was something to feed them for that moment.. and then was out of their mind.

USed to bother me years ago.. I agree with Tony Chapparo.. With a good presentation, smooth handling.. you can fool someone with something they already know.

POOF!
<gone>

You know.... I've written more on this subject on this forum (And others) than I should have. I've thought about it more than I should have. A lot more that any layperson has ever thought about an effect that they saw exposed. Of that I'm sure. The big fears here are:

1) Magicians are learning other creators effects in such a way that they don't have to pay (support) the creator. They just learn it for free and then go out and perform that effect. This raises a few disturbing thoughts in my mind. Not the least of which is state of the integrity of said performer. I mean..Would you walk into your local brick and mortar and load your pants with DVDs? The other major concern is that without an influx of money creators would stop creating and releasing their effects. That would be a sad day indeed.

2) (And this is a guess) That one day, Through means that I cannot even fathom, Everyone on the planet will know everything that there is to know about magic. So therefore there will be no need or desire for magicians. Am I close on this one? I think in some peoples minds...I am.

I don't know guys. I really don't. All that I can tell you is that of all the people that I have done magic for, Be it friend or stranger, I have NEVER heard anyone say to me "I saw that on youtube" or "I'm going to go look that up on youtube and find out how its done".

What do you want from a petition? Lawsuits? settlements? Supreme court hearings?
Listen to this well: There are an EXTREMELY limited number of people looking up exposure videos on youtube. Most people don't even know or care about it. But I guarantee you this, If this ever found its way into a courtroom and got any kind of media exposure the number of people looking up exposure videos would increase exponentially. And then what? The people who got it pushed into the public view will have done far more damage than the exposers ever could have.

The better thing to do would be to support a general bill against copyright infringement through the use of the Internet. That would ultimately get more people behind it than just a "Magicians only" petition as this problem extends to things like movies and music. Things that people not of the magic world can relate to.

The reality is that is is happening. I myself have seen magic videos, Movies, Songs, You name it. These things are out there and whoever wants them can download them at the click of a button.

I signed the petition because I believe what is happening is wrong and at the moment there is no other way to make my voice heard. Do I think its the best or only way? No. No I don't. But it is something and it made me feel a little better in singing it no matter what the outcome and it looks like I'm not alone. There are at this moment 630 signatures.

Well... that's enough from me. Again I've written too much and thought to much.
I think I'll go pick up a deck of cards and do what I love to do. Practice magic.

Peace to you all,
Tim