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Magic, copyright, and internal enforcement mechanisms

Cory Doctorow at 4:58 pm Thu, Jan 31, 2013

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Sara Crasson sez, "With the posts about magic recently, I thought you might be interested in an article I wrote about how intellectual property law applies to magicians (among other performers). In writing it, I thought I would establish that current protections were of limited benefit to magicians and then finish the piece by proposing enhanced protections that would help magicians, but as I thought about it, I got turned around. The article concludes with a section analyzing how the lack of legal protection benefits the art as a whole, how restricting access to magical techniques could make it impossible for magicians to create new tricks, and how internal social enforcement mechanisms could help reduce what magicians consider impermissible copying."

THE LIMITED PROTECTIONS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW FOR THE VARIETY ARTS: PROTECTING ZACCHINI, HOUDINI, AND CIRQUE DU SOLEIL [PDF] [Moorad Sports Law Journal at Villanova Law School]

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • John Ohno

    A little disappointing. I expected an essay about how copyright law (along with contract law) is based upon the assumption that magic is real.

  • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

    Since any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology, I think I am seeing a huge potential problem here.