Search found 105 matches
- April 28th, 2014, 10:11 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Magicians stealing
- Replies: 76
- Views: 16831
Re: Magicians stealing
Again, the advice wouldn't be to "slyly cheat." Like many legal issues, this one doesn't have a clear resolution; it might be infringing or it might not be as performed. There are small adjustments that could likely put it decisively into the realm of parody. And if it were infringing, an ...
- April 26th, 2014, 11:47 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Magicians stealing
- Replies: 76
- Views: 16831
Re: Magicians stealing
"And advice to keep on using the copyrighted property of Matt Groening or Fox Studios until they notice, hoping to slide under their radar, is extraordinarily bad advice. But anyone who takes legal advice from some random dude on the internet deserves pretty much what he gets, I suppose." ...
- April 22nd, 2014, 4:54 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Magicians stealing
- Replies: 76
- Views: 16831
Re: Magicians stealing
This could go either way (under US law), for some of the reasons noted above. However, it would be very easy to make a few small adjustments to the routine that would make it highly likely to be deemed protected artistic expression and thus non-infringing. As a practical matter, if Fox as the copyri...
- April 16th, 2014, 1:39 am
- Forum: Link Watch
- Topic: Derek DelGaudio to produce new Disney movie
- Replies: 22
- Views: 7822
Re: Derek DelGaudio to produce new Disney movie
I suspect Derek intended to convey "You would think so. . . " as opposed to "You would think so. . ." Different emphasis; two entirely different connotations.
- April 6th, 2014, 10:51 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: How many ways can you arrange a deck of cards?
- Replies: 43
- Views: 19143
Re: How many ways can you arrange a deck of cards?
I recalled reading in the most recent Persi Diaconis book a counterintuitive explanation as to why it's somewhat less than 52! but now can't find it; perhaps it was conditioned on beginning from a particular arrangement and spoke to the number of possible arrangements from there by way of a conventi...
- April 6th, 2014, 10:49 am
- Forum: Link Watch
- Topic: Derek DelGaudio to produce new Disney movie
- Replies: 22
- Views: 7822
Re: Derek DelGaudio to produce new Disney movie
He's not the sort of person to just take a title/credit and leave it at that; I suspect he will substantially influence the movie and that the influence will be original and notable.
- March 8th, 2014, 7:31 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Wonderball
- Replies: 125
- Views: 31868
Re: Wonderball
Richard Kaufman wrote:Wonderball could be greatly improved by simply doing Astrosphere. The original effect produces a wonderful illusion of floating without jiggling--the ball floats "solidly" and is just great.
Astrosphere was great; much better than Zombie
- February 15th, 2014, 3:06 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Looking for magic quotes
- Replies: 46
- Views: 15131
Re: Looking for magic quotes
I couldn't have made the case better than that, and I am also baffled by the weird fashion of prefacing every self-evident opinion with the inane 'IMHO.'
- February 13th, 2014, 3:25 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Looking for magic quotes
- Replies: 46
- Views: 15131
Re: Looking for magic quotes
A strong case to be made that Seneca wasn't referring to anything like "our work."
- February 12th, 2014, 6:24 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Cate at the Castle
- Replies: 12
- Views: 5465
Re: Cate at the Castle
11. Lurk around the back and slip inside when someone brings food to the Inner Circle. It's pretty clear she used "weird" to capture the singular, eccentric experience of going to the Castle, and likened that to winning the award. People also say "weird" in a colloquial way that'...
- February 12th, 2014, 6:12 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Looking for magic quotes
- Replies: 46
- Views: 15131
Re: Looking for magic quotes
"If you're going to quote the Seneca item - get it in context:" Or not. It has coherent, independent meaning removed from the original context, much as most of the "popular quotes" from Shakespeare or Milton or Donne have different meaning as stand-alone aphorisms than in the con...
- February 9th, 2014, 5:51 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Who owns copyright on Magic and Showmanship?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 7451
Re: Who owns copyright on Magic and Showmanship?
It's far more about the copyright holder's willingness to pursue an infringement claim than whether there plausibly is a claim, as there almost always is in any circumstance worth asking about.
- February 8th, 2014, 11:48 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Who owns copyright on Magic and Showmanship?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 7451
Re: Who owns copyright on Magic and Showmanship?
I'd not make Dover's take the last word on this. How to proceed has more to do with how much you value this and risk preferences than any of the various, perhaps contradictory, opinions as to the likely legal dispositions, though of course some of those opinions are more plausible than others, and y...
- February 7th, 2014, 2:32 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Who owns copyright on Magic and Showmanship?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 7451
- February 7th, 2014, 2:31 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Selling off a domain name
- Replies: 10
- Views: 4056
Re: Selling off a domain name
As noted above, domain names overwhelmingly sell for essentially nothing, and yet a ridiculous number of people believe they are sitting on massive riches.
- February 4th, 2014, 8:25 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Why it's so hard to sell the "Magician in Trouble" conceit
- Replies: 42
- Views: 22064
Re: Why it's so hard to sell the "Magician in Trouble" conce
"The yawning chasm between the performances of most magicians and that of a trained actor is consistently depressing to me." This really seems to get to the essence not just of "magician in trouble" but the more pervasive problem of substandard magic. I was 15 years old when I qu...
- February 4th, 2014, 6:18 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Why it's so hard to sell the "Magician in Trouble" conceit
- Replies: 42
- Views: 22064
Re: Why it's so hard to sell the "Magician in Trouble" conce
Whatever Tommy Wonder's insights, this device is ineptly executed nearly every time it's attempted by a magician, even in the most exalted venues, and that generally has nothing to do with placing "blame" on the spectators (though that is patently dumb, as opposed to being somehow "of...
- January 30th, 2014, 8:26 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Looking for magic quotes
- Replies: 46
- Views: 15131
Re: Looking for magic quotes
At Magic Cafe, a dozen people would have posted the played-out Arthur C. Clarke comment about magic/technology.
- January 29th, 2014, 2:23 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Don't Trust Andrew Mayne
- Replies: 14
- Views: 4857
Re: Don't Trust Andrew Mayne
Television audiences also like The Wire, Breaking Bad and Six Feet Under; TV popularity isn't strictly a measure of being lowbrow and artistically bereft.
- January 29th, 2014, 2:20 pm
- Forum: Magic History and Anecdotes
- Topic: Lou Tannen - Memories
- Replies: 26
- Views: 9894
Re: Lou Tannen - Memories
Not Tannen's per se, but the Tannen's magic camp (initially called Tannen's Magic Week). . . I went to the first five years of the Tannen's camp ('75-'79), and it turned out I was the only person who had attended each of those first five years. Tony Spina indicated that some sort of gift from Tannen...
- January 24th, 2014, 3:51 pm
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Is Bill in Lemon overexposed?
- Replies: 29
- Views: 7831
Re: Is Bill in Lemon overexposed?
"Lemons are funny" is a more substantial explanation than many. Lemons are perhaps all the more funny when they are incongruous - i.e., at odds with an established performing persona. Perhaps they are just inherently incongruous with nearly any performance setting. Merely positing that &qu...
- January 24th, 2014, 10:40 am
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Is Bill in Lemon overexposed?
- Replies: 29
- Views: 7831
Re: Is Bill in Lemon overexposed?
" Without the performer's character, what is left? A non-entity making paper money wind up in a really, really hard place." With the bulk of thin, slapdash constructions offered as characters, that's about all there really is. I suppose we're agreeing; I'm just putting emphasis on the need...
- January 23rd, 2014, 5:21 pm
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Is Bill in Lemon overexposed?
- Replies: 29
- Views: 7831
Re: Is Bill in Lemon overexposed?
"but doesn't tell us why the bill made it into the lemon."
Because it's really, really hard for a bill to get into a lemon. I prefer that minimalist rationale to many of the tortured attempts to link a lemon, or whatever, to the performer's 'character.'
Because it's really, really hard for a bill to get into a lemon. I prefer that minimalist rationale to many of the tortured attempts to link a lemon, or whatever, to the performer's 'character.'
- December 25th, 2013, 6:37 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Merry Christmas from The Chief Genii
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3037
Re: Merry Christmas from The Chief Genii
Another great year, Richard; well done. Thanks again for letting me be a part of things.
- December 11th, 2013, 2:53 pm
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Video of Dingle and Jennings in their prime?
- Replies: 40
- Views: 15416
Re: Video of Dingle and Jennings in their prime?
Richard is right that there is often not a single, clearly correct copyright designation, which makes for a good law school exam question far more than practical certainty. As a practical matter, therefore, when copyright is ambiguous like this there is often an effort to assemble everyone with a pl...
- November 15th, 2013, 7:38 am
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Criss Angel to Raise the Dead?
- Replies: 37
- Views: 17676
- November 14th, 2013, 10:31 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Criss Angel to Raise the Dead?
- Replies: 37
- Views: 17676
Re: Criss Angel to Raise the Dead?
I'll take oblique cat and horse references for 500, Alex...
- November 14th, 2013, 12:31 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Criss Angel to Raise the Dead?
- Replies: 37
- Views: 17676
Re: Criss Angel to Raise the Dead?
It would of course be really outrageous if a major global institution were to be premised on the absurdity of rising from the dead.
- November 14th, 2013, 12:26 pm
- Forum: Collector's Marketplace
- Topic: High Book Price
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1688
Re: High Book Price
I suspect he arrived at it by adding some amount to what seems to be the typical market price, in the not unrealistic hope that someone who isn't price sensitive will pay that greater amount. Nearly every time something sells for $50 there are people who would have paid $75 just as there are people ...
- October 30th, 2013, 4:58 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Harry’s Not Home! Leave Me Alone!!!
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1557
Re: Harry’s Not Home! Leave Me Alone!!!
Not a lot of options short of charging admission for people to walk through or to perform whatever ridiculous tests 'ghost hunters' do.
- October 17th, 2013, 4:33 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Why it's so hard to sell the "Magician in Trouble" conceit
- Replies: 42
- Views: 22064
Re: Why it's so hard to sell the "Magician in Trouble" conce
Almost without exception the 'magician in trouble' is delivered in such an inept, jokey way that it's just not credible that the trouble is real. And it's apparently not at all easy to draw on those moments when things really do go wrong and a cold panic sweeps over the performer. Lack of acting abi...
- October 9th, 2013, 10:44 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Dodgy magic photos
- Replies: 44
- Views: 12842
Re: Dodgy magic photos
Baffled by the suggestion that there's something untoward about the photo. No only would I be unbothered if my daughter were in it, I'd be at a loss to know what I ought to be outraged or, to use the go-to term of right now, 'offended' about.
- September 12th, 2013, 11:22 am
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Collins Key first magician ever to make it to finals of AGT
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2089
Re: Collins Key first magician ever to make it to finals of
That's good, I suppose, but magic seems to over-celebrate whenever it's on some middling TV show with jokey acerbic judges, or buried in the D-segment on Letterman. Things like ballet and poetry and opera have come to terms with being outside the mainstream pop culture din, and at its best magic is ...
- September 8th, 2013, 11:48 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: How Does Magic Castle Subscription Work?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2001
Re: How Does Magic Castle Subscription Work?
Thanks, Richard; and congratulations on striking this arrangement with the Castle.
- August 28th, 2013, 11:03 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: How Does Magic Castle Subscription Work?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2001
How Does Magic Castle Subscription Work?
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but I understand that an electronic Genii subscription is now part of Castle membership. As it happens, my subscription just expired, so I'm wondering what, if anything, I need to do to continue having access to the electronic edition.
- July 17th, 2013, 3:48 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Seeking names of famous people who were once magicians
- Replies: 20
- Views: 8472
Re: Seeking names of famous people who were once magicians
One I was surprised to discover: Arsenio Hall.
- July 17th, 2013, 3:46 pm
- Forum: Feature Articles
- Topic: Intellectual Property Laws and Magic
- Replies: 2
- Views: 9283
Re: Intellectual Property Laws and Magic
To underscore the praise for Sara Crasson's series, and the latest installment, this is a far more challenging undertaking than is perhaps obvious. While there are innumerable templates for discussing the application of intellectual property doctrines to music or inventions with broad commercial pur...
- July 11th, 2013, 5:44 am
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Five-Foot Shelf
- Replies: 32
- Views: 7360
Re: Five-Foot Shelf
Second the call above for "Book of Secrets." Also, a nascent classic: Helder Guimares' "Reflections." Each book connects the author's command over the most subtle details to performances that appear effortless and utterly natural. Pre-Internet, The World's Greatest Magic was the ...
- July 10th, 2013, 8:14 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Teaching Magic To Bullied Chidren
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4065
Re: Teaching Magic To Bullied Chidren
Being good at anything is a useful social skill, and there's a measure of deception in virtually every skill that's valued, whether it's selling as a commercial person or creating as an artistic person. Of course being good at some things will always be more highly valued than being good at other th...
- June 26th, 2013, 10:44 am
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Real Secrets - The Market Decides
- Replies: 34
- Views: 7703
Re: Real Secrets - The Market Decides
"Nonetheless, there is nothing in the RS agreement mentioning resale. However, one -- or rather, they -- could argue that passing the tricks to another person constitutes revealing them. On the other side, though, in New York law contracts are assignable unless specified otherwise. (Don't know ...