Well stated, Whit.

For all you bloggers who accused me of hypocrisy for not jumping on Whit or Bob, I believe that Whit and Bob did a lot more due diligence than you seem to think they did.

They have not in any way tried to circumvent any of the consequences.

Now that everyone has heard their side of the story, I feel it would be both counterproductive and inappropriate for me to make any further comment, except to note that the money is a generous offer and I hope that the situation can be settled amicably.

I would like to add that I subscribe to a databank that lists various kinds of names and licenses in many states. I could not turn up a single Doug Bush in Georgia.

It is a very interesting story, with mystery and scandal to spice things up. Obviously respect for the work on behalf of Bob, Chef, and Whit. I hope that they are correct in their original decision that the work was not still in copyright. Sad that the way the system works that a good deal of time may pass before it is resolved.

Why not just pull off the pdf and issue the dvd without it. Then everyone would be happy no lawsuit Mr Bush would have what he wants and you guys could still have a dvd. A lot of ppl get really upset at work going into pdf form the internet being what it is and trading and all that goes on with pdfs. I think it is better to make everyone happy than to fight over it.
Beth

Beth, we have not yet heard from Mr. Bush about what he wants and what would make him happy.

A word of caution: regardless of the merits of any lawsuit, ongoing or pending, a public internet forum is NOT the place to lay out your case. Anything you write here is discoverable by the other side, and although you may mean the best, you may not recognize when you make admissions which are adverse to your case or your interests.

In the big scheme of things magic is such a small thing all this controversy seems pointless. I agree Whit did what he could to make good and Mr. Bush is being advised foolishly.

On the upside, This whole thing could make a very interesting book or series of articles in Genii or Magic sometime in the future when things have worked themselves out. Like Steinmeyer's book "Hiding the Elephant" this could be "Finding the Pea."

I'm sorry the DVD is no longer available. I'd settle for the thing to have that section scrambled and continue to sell it. In any case this is my advice for you Whit and I got it when I was being sued by a former business partner in a different industry. Counter sue for an ungodly amount (Mine was for one million dollars) and then make them spend as much as possible for as long as possible.

For those who are interested, yes we went to court, no they lost and I won, and no I dropped the countersuit as it had already fulfilled its purpose.

Frank (Not a millionare) Tougas

That is exactly what our lawyers told us. However, the good opinion of our friends and customers is more important to us than this possible lawsuit, in which we are confident we will prevail. We felt it was necessary to respond to all the charges leveled against us by stating the basic facts of the case.

We do believe that the magic community has to have a set of ethics that is more demanding than that of copyright law. We care very much about fairness and friendly behavior, and we present our side with the hope that the vast majority within our community will think that we behaved properly.

Were we to be upbraided by our peers for what we did, and the consensus went against us, then we would try to apologize and move on. We think it is important for these sorts of issues to be dealt with by the community, and do not consider ourselves to be above the same rules with which we want others to abide.

:applause:
:applause:
:applause:
:applause:

Again thank you Whit.

What you have done is honerable. I hope that others see it that way.

Everyone has to see it that way,what other way is there now that the facts are in.
Don

I agree with Mr D. Sure as heck looks like they went to great lengths to act properly. I'm not sure what more they could have done. Hopefully they will get this cleared up very soon. I can't believe lawyers need to be involved, oh well.

My personal feeling is that the people who instigated all the criticism should be ashamed of themselves. Instead of doing as Whit asked on the DVD and showing him how to contact Doug in the first place, they went to Doug first, made accusations and got him riled up.

I've been in the same positions before. I've been the injured party and the party that made the mistake. Usually, I have been able to work something out with the other party.

Hopefully, those with no personal interest in this will stand aside and let Whit and Doug work things out. Otherwise, no good can come of this.

It's really sad that lawyers have to get involved in what is basically a negotiation for a royalty, which may not even be legally owed due to the change in the copyright law.

Negotiations for royalties. That is exactly what it is.

This is the opinion a large publishing house's legal department gave us (It is not to be considered legal advice) on the basis of the info given above:

"It is very obvious that he made an extremely diligent and sincere effort (also highly documented) to locate Doug D Bush … accordingly, no claim of “willful infringement” could be justified or supposed in a court of law.

"The subject piece was reportedly first published in 1975 … thus subject to the old copyright law … and as far as I can see, Bush is not presenting a Copyright Registration Certificate; which is essential to prove ownership in infringement matters.

"Therefore, if it was distributed by any means (sold or given away) without the benefit of having a printed ©, Bush’s claim to ownership in the work is forfeit; irrespective of whether or not he registered the piece with the Library of Congress. Further pre-1978 works had to be specifically renewed with the Library of Congress after 28 years (2003 in this case) … if Bush failed to renew the registration, the copyright is forfeit (but in this case, only in the U.S.A.).

"I did an “Advanced Search” on the Copyright Office website and found absolutely nothing … my professional conclusion would be that Mr. Bush has no claim in ownership whatsoever.

"That said, I’m a big fan of compensating creators and applaud Mr. Haydn’s willingness to pay Mr. Bush.

"Were we to apply Alfred’s typical royalty scheme to this situation … understand that our typically “artist” DVD royalties average 12% of wholesale, a rate of $1.74 per DVD would be payable … his offer of $2000.00 is perfect!"

Wow. First Mr. Townsend comes back to life now Mr. Bush. I am really kind of saddened by this whole thing, seems like Whit Haydn and company did what they could in an effort to locate Mr. Bush. It in no way compares with the actions of those that don't try to locate creators or act as if the creators never existed. I think that Doug Bush is either, as suspected, having his chain yanked by someone wanting to cause problems for Whit or he is like the character from The Hounds of the Baskervilles. I, as a fan of Whits material, have been looking forward to his Notes on the Three Shell Game and found out recently it was being done in DVD format and was hoping to track it down to do on the review show I have on magicbroadcast.com. Now I have to wait longer.

Good luck Whit, I hope all come out winners in this.
Steve V

The amazing thing about this episode is that if you have the now difficult to obtain DVD, and you printed out all of the PDF files on it, you would see that every one of them has been credited to its originator, including the Dr. Beaumont PDF, and that in all cases, except this one, permission was granted to publish them. It's not as if Whit, Bob and Chef Anton were out lifting material willy-nilly and putting it out on DVD's.

Contrast this with the e-mail I got from a fellow who was using an assumed name, offering to sell or swap me DVD's, VHS videos and books. The books were all e-books. One of them was a book that I wrote. It has never been published in a legal e-book.

Some of the books belonged to Martin Breese. I sent him the list, and he went after the fellow. I can't comment on how we tracked him down. Suffice it to say that he isn't as adept at teaching computer science as he should have been.

I've known Whit for more than 30 years. He has an excellent track record.

I should also point out that the royalty figure quoted by the representative of the publishing company would be the TOTAL royalty paid on the DVD. In this case, it would need to be split among Whit, Bob, Anton and Doug Bush. That assumes that the piano player was paid a flat fee.

This would put the total royalty for the manuscript at 1/4 of the price quoted.

So Whit's offer is, indeed, generous.

Whit,

Glad you finally posted your side. I tend to sympathize with you on this. However, I think you should have just left it off the dvd. I believe I would have left it off just because it's always safer to sell your own ideas and routines EVEN if you have the best intentions. Everyone makes mistakes though and not everyone owns up to it. You have my deepest respect for that.

However, after reading the sincerely apologetic email you sent Doug Bush, I don't think it's right that he refused to talk about it. I know we all take this stuff pretty seriously but that seems to be attaching an importance that is beyond reality. He really should be glad you offered him any money at all.

Does anyone know the story of when a famous trick of Alex Elmsley's was ripped off? The shop that was selling finally got hold of Elmsley and apologized and offered to stop selling the trick and Alex's response was something like.."Go ahead, why are you apologizing? It's only a card trick."

I think Doug simply put the matter to his lawyer so the lawyer could negotiate a fair price on his behalf, and I don’t see much wrong with that. If it is just a matter of settling on a fair price I can not see it going to court.

I don’t know if this has been mentioned or helps but I note that Whit did ask here at the Café about Doug and got no response, some time ago that is. It shows Whit was trying to find Doug at least.

Posted: Nov 24, 2004 8:26pm
I am looking for info on Dr. Henry Beaumont of "The Great Sotheastern Medicine Show and Tent Revival."

Any information on whether he is still alive, address, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

All I know about him is from his excellent pamphlet "The Famous 3 Shell Game."

--Whit Haydn
Posted: Dec 9, 2004 4:25am
I have been informed that Dr. Beaumont was Doug D. Bush who owned a magic store in Atlanta. Anyone have info on Doug Bush?

--Whit Haydn

Tommy

Let's hold off on judgments till both parties have had some say in the matter. I'd like to believe both parties have good intent.