Over the next few releases on the so called teen magic fad sites such as theory 11, ellusionist, penguin magic, and a few others, I'm going to conduct a survey and watch how long it takes for their new releases to end up on torrent websites. I will not be downloading the torrent to verify if it really is the effect they're downloading, but I will presume so.

My question is-Are these businesses and their market to blame for the increase in pirated magic and should creators be more hesitant to release their products through these companies?

Ellusionist released Daniel Garcia's "Fallen" the other day. Doing a simple google search I found links to download it on bit torrent sites. This is all within 1-2 days of their release.

All of theory 11's releases are on bit torrent sites
Oz Pearlmans latests releases- Into the Abyss and Perfection are ready to download.

Over the next few months I'm going to monitor new releases from collective random magic sites and check to see how fast they make it to the bit torrent market. I have monitored Ellusionist's releases before and it took three days for their loops dvd to make it to the bit torrent market.

Creators-beware. If you release your material exclusively through those sites, then the risk of your material being pirated will increase.

Just interesting information I think.
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No illegal downloads were made while writing this!

If it's downloadable, someone will put it up on one of the pirate sites. Plenty of immature people out there.

Excellent idea. I look forward to hearing more about this.

-Clay

Photius-
That is true.

I'm curious to why people are behaving this way and what are the other sources involved with this activity.

I might collect data on user names and what not.
Cheers.
Matt

The "Magic" community should become more 'exclusive.'

If one is serious about the art they will take proper action, as others have through the ages.

Tian, perfect!

once you've collected the data, be sure to share it with all of us. I'd like to find out where I could get a free copy of all the greats.

Funny...new magians wonder why certain effects cost HUNDREDS of $$$$...to keep it out of filthy little hands that EXPOSE...that's the only word to describe it...EXPOSURE!

Daniel Garcia, Justin Miller and countless others have graced us with their ingenious works, only to suffer their works put up on such sites...and you know full well people WILL go there and freely take...hey, I used to download music for free from Napster! Then, I was enlightened by someone with scruples...let me know the WHY of me being in error.

Really, there is nothing we can do. The door has been opened. It would take more than just US, to close it!

Sad.

Doug

Dougini, secrets should cost $$$$, regardless of exposure.

I'm sure coca cola's recipe is easy to duplicate, but the secret is worth millions.

In all honesty, I fell magic DVDs should sell for $1000.00 and up, and so should books. After all, many people will use those secrets in their performance where they will make money. Aside from that, it will help control exposure and people that have paid that kind of money will think twice about letting the curious view them.

Theory 11 is pirated? I held them in relatively high regard. They had some very nice effects on sale.

Dr_F, define pirated. did they make exact copies of the effect, or simply recreated the instructions in their own words?

Theory 11? Never heard of it...let's go there...

http://www.theory11.com

Looks a bit like Ellusionist, to me. Looking at the original post, "...teen magic fad sites such as theory 11, ellusionist, penguin magic, and a few others, I'm going to conduct a survey and watch how long it takes for their new releases to end up on torrent websites."

I see...the TORRENT websites...

There are many names...I've always called them P2P sites...same thing. So what we are saying here, as I understand it, is that the NEW releases of MAGIC effects, from such retailers as: Theory 11, Ellusionist, Penguin magic, and a few others,are being EXPOSED on TORRENT websites...

That makes it much clearer.

Doug

But you are advertisning the pirating, don't you think.

Perhaps this "problem" will take us back to the days of the magic book rather than just videos? Much harder to copy a book than digitally grab a DVD and upload it like a pirated copy of Harry Potter....

Hmmm...it's true, it DOES seem that way, but what if this brings it to the attention to those who MAY be able to stop it.

Enough people made enough noise to YouTube, and they took down COUNTLESS exposure vids.

Drop in the bucket, true...but don't stop now! If we do NOTHING, it WILL continue! I think education is the best defense. People need to know WHY it's wrong. It worked for ME, I mean, I used to go NUTS on Napster. Then, a concerned person EDUCATED me. I felt so guilty I never did it again.

Doug

How to fight torrents? Youtube is using their own storage, so you can ask them to put something down. The develish nature of torrents is that the files are still on the computers of the users/sharers.

Maybe I'm wrong in thinking this but if magic really is supposed to be the secret society that it is, why are we working so hard to market magic products. We sell magic to profit from the secret. Wouldn't it be great if the secret was simply kept a secret. Wouldn't magic be so much more entertaining and mysterious if you couldn't go down to the magic store and purchase a thumb tip for five dollars or a video on how to produce a rabbit for fifteen dollars. Everyone has their holier than thou reasons for selling (exposing) secrets but it all comes down to the all mighty dollar. I remember Valentino's reasons for his Fox specials but I am fairly certain that he was paid for what he gave up. Wouldn't it be a more wonderful world if magicians took their secrets with them instead of selling them. I guess it sorta sucks that magicians are losing money by exposing, sorry, selling their magical effects and then someone is posting their secrets for free all over the internet.
I guess I'm just one of those people that still wished he believed in Santa Clause because I know that Christmas was a lot better back then. When Napster first came onto the scene, I realized just how hard it was going to be for entertainers to rely on their income to come from other means than entertianment. Live entertainment was where it came from and that is where it will end back up. I agree that it is wrong to steal someone elses hard work and ideas but wouldn't it be better if it wasn't so *** easy to get the secret in the first place.