[WikiEN-l] Exposure of magic on Wikipedia

[Fastfission]

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 at 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 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > --- MacGyverMagic/Mgm <macgyvermagic at 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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