Teller Sues Over "Stolen" Magic Trick
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Why do you care so much about the price? Maybe he should've sold it for $3 or given it away for free on youtube so that even more people get access to it? Do you think Penn and Teller just started learning magic by figuring out by themselves how it works? The big tricks that you see most magicians pull will cost you a lot of money. Magicians won't simply go "Oh you are learning magic, here's how it works, have a nice day!". Most times you have to buy instruction books and dvds, even for a single move, not even a full trick.Tanis said:
I could MAYBE understand and accept this Bakardy seeing and understanding Teller's trick and then using it to inspire his own, making something new out of it...but just taking it verbatim and then SELLING it...that's just being an asshole.
Especially for so frickin' much. There's no way that a magic kit should ever cost 3,000 dollars, unless it's the saw the woman in half trick and the kit comes with the woman.
I hope Teller wins the case or at the very least Barkardy isn't allowed to sell the kit anymore.
Especially for so frickin' much. There's no way that a magic kit should ever cost 3,000 dollars, unless it's the saw the woman in half trick and the kit comes with the woman.
I hope Teller wins the case or at the very least Barkardy isn't allowed to sell the kit anymore.
It'd be different, I think, if the person who figured this out did it themselves, or taught apprentices to do it or what not... you really can't fault somebody for trying to learn your trick, to figure out how you do it, as that's more or less the bloody point. The problem is the danger of the trick becoming common knowledge, and therefore worthless to anyone. I mean, once you approach the point where you're selling those magic rings to folks in joke shops, you lose your audience for that trick.
Granted, charging 3 grand for the secret to the trick pretty much ensures that only serious magicians will pick this up... it'd be a lot to pay for casual curiousity. On the other hand, all it takes is one person to buy this thing and upload it to Youtube, and suddenly everyone will know how this trick is done... a trick that apparently has great personal significance for Teller, and which is the product of his genius alone.
Something HE could have sold for a lot of money, but decided not to because it was worth more to him to keep the secret.
I dunno. I have to sympathize with the guy, and I do believe that a new trick is just as much an act of creation as writing a book. However, if you write a romance novel that's a huge success, and someone analyzes your book to figure out why the emotions work and writes a different book that works for the same reasons... well, you don't get sued.
Uphill battle, indeed.
Granted, charging 3 grand for the secret to the trick pretty much ensures that only serious magicians will pick this up... it'd be a lot to pay for casual curiousity. On the other hand, all it takes is one person to buy this thing and upload it to Youtube, and suddenly everyone will know how this trick is done... a trick that apparently has great personal significance for Teller, and which is the product of his genius alone.
Something HE could have sold for a lot of money, but decided not to because it was worth more to him to keep the secret.
I dunno. I have to sympathize with the guy, and I do believe that a new trick is just as much an act of creation as writing a book. However, if you write a romance novel that's a huge success, and someone analyzes your book to figure out why the emotions work and writes a different book that works for the same reasons... well, you don't get sued.
Uphill battle, indeed.
Hmmm... remote controlled, maybe? It's still damn clever, even if that's the case!RJ 17 said:
I've only seen this trick done once (in the movie provided)... I wonder if he cuts the rose in exactly the same order each time he performs the trick...?
I feel bad for Teller, because that trick is really personal to him I think, and to have someone take that and sell it is just...ugh. Disgusting. I'm foggy on the copyright laws about magic tricks, but I hope Teller wins this one.
Also slightly unrelated, but I wonder if Penn knows how the trick works.
Also slightly unrelated, but I wonder if Penn knows how the trick works.
Okay, some people feel it's pretty scummy for Gerard Bakardy to sell Teller's illusion for $3000. But you know what's much worse? Anyone who would pay Bakardy for Teller's illusion.
You didn't create it. You didn't even figure it out from seeing the original. You paid some third party to "steal" it for you? And you're going to walk out on stage and perform it. I can think of a few words that Penn Jillette would use on Showtime for that behavior.
You didn't create it. You didn't even figure it out from seeing the original. You paid some third party to "steal" it for you? And you're going to walk out on stage and perform it. I can think of a few words that Penn Jillette would use on Showtime for that behavior.
I definitely don't have a problem with him performing it really, provided he says it was originally by teller, but making money off somebody elses work, especially something so beautiful, especially without paying any royalty, is just wrong.
Never mind that ruining a magic trick by giving away the answer is just plain wrong as well
Never mind that ruining a magic trick by giving away the answer is just plain wrong as well
Sawing a woman in half would be public domain by this time, as it dates back well over a century. Yes, you don't see people suing over that sort of thing. You also don't see people suing simply for covering an old folk song.Andy Chalk said:
I'm not sure where this is the "obvious answer."
The guys who in part made their notoriety by spoiling other people's tricks? Yeah, what a dick move.hurricanejbb said:
In circumstances dissimilar to this one.Yan007 said:
I don't know. Makes that newsflash seem kinda...Silly.
Yeah, like Penn said in the video, I can see a couple of different ways this could work. I doubt he is suing on the basis of the trick being "stolen." However, I think he could theoretically fight this a choreographed piece like the story said. An equivalent idea would be selling blue paint and homemade percussion instruments to do ripoffs of the Blue Man Group.
It's just profiteering. Teller is one of the purist magicians in the business, and that's his legacy to the profession that he loves. You can't walk on that. Imitation is one thing, but selling off someone's secrets for $3k a box? That's the lowest of low.
....Or candy.ShockValue said:
I'd be siding with the dude if he didn't go and try to sell the illusion to the open market. I love Penn and Teller, but they do have a douchey streak in them. The headline hinted that might have been the case this time, but this dude is certainly the bigger douche.
