What do you do if someone steals your idea?

[Brad Henderson]

Legally, you can take this to the Supreme Court, but only if you are able to show monetary loss due to the case and that the incident was done with malice and forethought.

Nope.

There are no legal protections for magic tricks other than patents. As the vast majority of ideals in magic are so derivitive, it is hard to establish that someone 'with reasonable knowledge of the art' would not have come up with the same idea.

Copyright applies only to specific incarnations of media - they can't sell a copy of your book or dvd, for example.
Malice and forethought have nothing to do with ip cases. Libel and slander cases, yes - but not ip.

Finally, the supreme court does not try matters of fact but proceedure and constitutionality. It is a court of appeals. It would never get to them.

 

[Xdelamuertex]

To brad henderson

You sir are an idiot trying to use big words to make yourself sound smarter. Really I was just searching for copyright laws and am now aware that you cant copyright the trick, but you can the directions. Nope, dont need the hype thanks as thats pointless if its a good trick it sells itself. Magic isnt about the hype, its about who you know and of course the ability to think outside the box. So all you sound like to me Brad is disgrundled and Non employed, but I would think you would be with such an incredibly large vocabulary LOL

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Yes, one of the people in this discussion does seem kind of stupid and uninformed.

I'll give you a hint. It's the one that isn't mentioned here.

Also, a trick never 'sells itself.' There's probably thousands of good tricks out there that are basically unknown because they're in books that never really took off, or have fallen off the radar. If something gets sold, it's due to marketing, or, in other words, hype.

 

[ReadMoreMagicBooks]

Nope.

There are no legal protections for magic tricks other than patents. As the vast majority of ideals in magic are so derivitive, it is hard to establish that someone 'with reasonable knowledge of the art' would not have come up with the same idea.

Copyright applies only to specific incarnations of media - they can't sell a copy of your book or dvd, for example.
Malice and forethought have nothing to do with ip cases. Libel and slander cases, yes - but not ip.

Finally, the supreme court does not try matters of fact but proceedure and constitutionality. It is a court of appeals. It would never get to them.

I know, my post was complete bull****.