Magic Tricks and Intellectual Property

[cmason32]

@ianzin

Perhaps I can try to respond to some of the point made here.

stuyguy said “I think Ianzin will find that magic tricks qualify as trade secrets, not intellectual property”. No, I will not, because this is incorrect. If a magician invents a trick and publishes a book containing the details of that trick, then this is his intellectual property and he has the right to exploit it commercially, give it away free or do whatever else he wants. No-one has that right unless it is conferred by the originator.
.

Absolutely incorrect. One cannot receive, what would in effect be, a patent for an idea expressed in a book. If I were to come up with a new accounting procedure and published that procedure in a book, the copyright on the book in no way whatsoever extends to me any protection of that procedure. In fact, the courts have explicitly ruled on this scenario and found as such.*

Moreover, from What Does Copyright Protect? (FAQ) | U.S. Copyright Office

How do I protect my idea?
Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work.

*I’m in class right now so I can’t cite the case at the moment, but I will be happy to do so when I return home.