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Magicians sue Japan TV networks

I'm against a TV show exposing magic tricks. It is mean spirited exposing methods to the public. Having said that I'll admit that I've seen some effects that I wished to learn without paying for. I put the name of the effect in Youtube and watched some piker screw it up so I could learn.
 
Orangutan said:
I don't think this has been posted already.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6612507.stm
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I don't know japanese IP law that well but such a case would not fly under UK or US law.

People who invent magic tricks are in a particularly sucky legal position. Copyright only provides a limited amount of protection and patent requires that you reveal how the trick is done (ok historicaly you might have been able to do something with a submarine patent but the relivant loophole has fortunetly been closed).

On the other hand they appear to expect tricks to stay secret for far longer than the 20 years protection that would be given by a patent.
 
And of course, there's the issue that this was (most likely) revealed as a newscase because, apparently, the tricks in question broke Japanese law. I have a feeling the judge will take this into consideration, which should mean that they have even less of a leg to stand on.
 
The two networks revealed how the coin tricks were completed last November, after a magician and a pub operator were arrested for punching holes in coins.

It is against the law to damage or melt coins in Japan.
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Interesting. Some magicians in the USA punch holes in coins to create "pen through quarter" props, which can be given away to spectators as souvenirs. Basically, the effect is that a coin is shown--with no hole--and a pen (or similar object) is visibly passed through it. A skillful performer can allow audience members to examine (or keep) the pen through coin. Not only will the spectator be baffled as to how a coin without a hole suddenly acquired a hole, the spectator will also be puzzled as to how a pen that seemed to pass so smoothly through the coin now seems to be stuck and unremovable from the coin. (Sorry, how those mysteries are accomplished are guarded secrets!)

Michael Ammar is a performer who has used these props, and at least one of his videos describes where a magician can take rolls of coins to get them "punched."
 
Yeah. Randi didn't get the fact about the damaging of coins being illegal in Japan, which I believe is a very good possible reason for the revelation...
 
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