Alright... we all know there are exposure websites out there... there's no way to stop it and not much we can do about it.

Recently, thanks to a fortuitous Google search, I found my own marketed effect "The Destiny Effect" being openly discussed method-wise on an exposure-based forum. People are discussing what they think the method is and some people who own the ebook are posting general methods... INCLUDING members of this very forum, who I used to respect but now consider nothing but scum.

I registered for an account on this forum to confront the issue. I established how upset I was, especially with specific members, and asked that the exposure discussion of my effect would stop. After all, Destiny is my baby... a piece I've used for over 2 years and has been my signature effect as long.

Was I responded to with a mature rebuttal? No... instead, I was insulted in numerous ways, plus someone had the audacity to actually post the entire, full, thorough method almost exactly as it appears in my ebook.

In closing... be careful on judgement of magicians you know. Even those who seem like respectable, talented guys may turn out to be the exact opposite.

I can't describe how furious and upset this issue makes me. I tried to approach the issue with a certain degree of maturity (although I do wish I had retracted some comments I made at the outset as a result of my anger) and was readdressed with rudeness and statements that not only insulted my work, but also directly targeted me as a person.

Just needed to vent, thank you for listening.

I feel your pain I really do. What I don't understand is why magic companies (Sankey and I think even emagicsupply)advertise on these sites and try to profit from the very thing that is destroying this business/art.

Posted: Sep 23, 2009 6:16pm
I checked and I was right emagicsupply does advertise on an exposure site actually the leading exposure site along with sankey. How can you complain of course they are exposing it how else do you think they heard about it.

To be clear... eMagic Supply is NOT associated with the website you are thinking of. The owner of the website is an affiliate of eMagic Supply and advertises them everywhere. Steve Fearson himself has expressed discontent with this issue.

You would think that Fearson could have some control over this right?

Posted: Sep 23, 2009 6:47pm
I'm not coming down on you please I don't want you to get that from my posts. I am on your side with this one but I never understood why people do business in any sense with that person

LOL I've even written an insulting poem about him . You can find it somewhere on the forums.

I'll talk to Steve about it... I'm sure he'd like to know.

I'd rather they targeted me and left my work alone!

I feel for you bro...

Thank you guys.

As it turns out, after a lot of arguing, whoever runs the forum (finally) respected my wishes and deleted the whole thread on my effect.... which is appreciated. Not that it ever should have appeared in the first place, but the fact that it was removed was somewhat reassuring.

Too many magicians openly say exposure doesn't hurt!!!!!

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=177

I know the guy who owns the copyright to Justin Miller's Seven Deadly Sleights. He googled the name of his product and found that there had been a bit torrent site that had the DVD posted and that there had been over 25,000 downloads...free...from this site alone! That's money out of his pocket that he will never be able to get.

Of course, once he informed the owners of the site, they took it down immediately, but the damage had been done.

Fortunately (bittersweet, I know) most of those downloads are by people who will never profit from their ill-gotten gains anyhow.

Because people who show so little regard for the work of others are rarely the sort of folks who are willing to do the work to perfect a fine trick anyhow.
They're merely "secrets collectors" who are, ultimately, just wasting bandwidth...

Now when you move into the realm of actual piracy-for-gain, the equation changes dramatically.

In retrospect, this whole exposure deal never really hurt my effect in terms of sales... then again, it only took a few days to get the thread deleted.