Copyright caselaw takes into account the character of the copyrighted work. If the nature of the work is to describe some sort of process or activity, it likely falls under patent law and not copyright law. The standard mantra, misleading as it can be, is that ideas cannot be copyrighted, only expressions. When we are talking about things like "how to move your hands around to get the desired effect," that usually applies (when we are talking about things like "an evil character with a dark black helmet who makes asthmatic weezing", then we get into a more murky question about where ideas end and expressions begin).
Is there any concrete reason to worry about this at the moment or is this all just hypothetical? We should not overly concern ourselves with magician etiquette if there is no pressing reason.
FF
On 1/15/07, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
Excessively long plot summaries of films and books can constitute a copyright violation because while they're not an exact copy, they damage intellectual rights of the copyrighted material. Can't the same apply to summarizing a magic trick manual to the point while the text is not a copy it still violates the copyright of the text?
Mgm
On 1/15/07, Matt R matt_crypto@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
--- MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
However, isn't exposure of commercially available effects considered [[piracy]] then?
and
But it's still making material freely available that should be paid for
to
start with.
What did you mean by "should"? Making information freely available is part of why Wikipedia exists and why Wikipedia is a good thing. Sharing information is not normally termed "piracy" when it does not transgress IP law.[1]
As far as I'm aware, the only general argument against exposure on Wikipedia is an ethical one (presuming we otherwise have reliable sources, don't copy and paste text etc.) But Wikipedia is not censored for the benefit of magicians.
-- Matt
[1] And you might not wish to term it "piracy" even when it does transgress IP law, see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Crypto Blog: http://cipher-text.blogspot.com
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