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If I actually had any hair on the top of my head, it would hurt right now.

I realize the topic of the lack of ethics in magic and magic manufacturing is an old one. I’m certain it pre-dates the oldest issue of Sphynx. And actually, now that I think about it, it probably goes back to the first time some Egyptian designed a set of cups for the famous Cups and Balls trick — and maybe named them the Syrian Fox Cups — which were later appropriated in questionable manner and sold by someone else — maybe named Buzz-B the Pharisee.

(I’d be willing to bet that if you even tried to sell a Buzz-B the Pharisee set of cups on eBay today your auction would be shut down — that’s how contentious that dirty B is.)

What troubles me is that here we are in the tail end of the year 2004 — well into the 21st Century, the century of enlightenment and quality footwear — and there’s still equivocation being sputtered in discussions about the unethical behavior of some magic manufacturers in knocking off someone else’s trick. For the love of Pete. Even my goldfish understands this issue.

In a recent exchange on the Ring 2100 email list, I was faced with the following argument:

Has anyone ever heard someone saying the following? “The new Kia station wagon is selling for $10,000, but I am going to buy the $40,000 Mercedes instead because Kia is making cheap knockoffs, and it should be banned.”

I read that and actually heard Rod Serling whisper into my ear, “This is not a dream. You have just entered The Magic Ethics Hell Zone.”

First, and not specific to the point I’m going to attempt to make in a moment, someone who is seriously in the market for a Mercedes is not very likely to look at Kia. Let’s be reasonable for a moment. There are some things more important than price: quality, reliability, and safety come immediately to mind. I don’t own a Mercedes, but I do own a car made by their Bavarian neighbors. Yes, I paid more than I would have for a Kia, but I also obtained a car that is of higher, consistent quality; runs and runs fast when I want or need it to; and positively saved my life a few months ago when another car slammed into me on the driver side. Granted, I had to crawl out of the car, but I walked away. Had I been in a Kia, I wouldn’t be writing this post; my goldfish would be. (And if you think I use obscure references, you should read some of the things he writes.)

The world of stage illusions is analogous to this Kia-Mercedes comparison. Someone willing to risk their life in a Kia-quality illusion rather than a Mercedes-quality illusion has a higher risk of finding himself in the position of never having to make that buying decision again. And while the newspaper headline — remember, “if it bleeds, it leads” — may be spectacular, Drudge Report material, dying in a poorly built illusion is not a terribly bright way of following the advice: don’t read your own press.

Back to point-making:

Kia does not make “cheap knock-offs” of Mercedes or any other car manufacturer’s automobiles. Kia manufactures low priced cars of their own design. Now, if Kia took a Mercedes and duplicated the design and began selling them, they’d have a problem.

On the other hand, let’s say a magic manufacturer like Collectors Workshop sells a trick called Badlands Bob — a trick, the rights to which were purchased from the inventor. Now, let’s say another manufacturer takes Collectors Workshop’s trick and duplicates it and sells it for a much reduced price.

Rhetorical question time: is there anything wrong with that?

Here’s another case in point. Almost seven years ago Bazar de Magia produced and sold a watch called Watch & Wear. It was a version of the prediction watch effect whereby a magician ostinsibly predicts ahead of time the hour and minute a spectator will choose. This trick is one of many versions of the effect. (Note the distinction between trick and effect — they are not the same thing.)

A couple of years later, Magic Makers offered for sale a watch that looked and worked substantially like Bazar’s Watch & Wear. It was not only the same type of trick, the watch appears to be a direct duplicate. Take a look here and draw your own conclusions.

While sharing a number of common aspects, the world of magic and music deal with these duplicated versions in a different manner. In the world of music, one artist — like George Winston — can do a tribute of another artist — like Vince Guaraldi. In this case, the resulting “Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi“ CD paid not only tribute to the genius of Guaraldi, but also royaties. That’s the way the music industry works because of copyright laws. (It’s also a fantastic CD — and that’s coming from a Vince Guiraldi fanatic who is also a George Winston fanatic.)

In magic, however, since neither copyright nor patent laws typically may be reasonably applied to inventions, laws cannot be pressed into service to protect the inappropriate acquisition of someone’s idea when it comes to a particular trick. The sad fact of things is this: absent laws defining this behavior as illegal, we fall into the category of ethics and morals. And that’s when the fur starts flying because now, instead of a canon of law to which we can point as the center of discussion, we are left with as many different interpretations of right and wrong as there are people joining the conversation — and nearly everyone convinced that their point of view should be the universal point of view and everyone else must be smoking crack.

Too many cooks in the kitchen who don’t know a spoon from a pot.

The person with whom I had this exchange went on to write:

Disclaimer: I am not against banning cheap knockoffs by those who steal others’ ideas. On the contrary, I encourage people to buy original props. They will save money in the long run. In my early days I had purchased (for not knowing any better) cheap knockoffs only to end up needing to buy the high quality originals at a later time. However, I can’t help but ponder the above, since after all, we are living in a free market society. This means that McDonald’s must contend with Wendy’s, Roy Roger’s, and the likes; AT&T has to contend with MCI, Verizon, and the likes. Ford with GM, etc. If the big industry is not immune to competition, how in the world can our small industry hopes to avoid it?

But this is not about legitimate competition. This is about duplication — knock-offs. There is a big difference.

You cannot go into Wendy’s and order an identical version of McDonald’s Big Mac. Or vice versa. You cannot go to a Ford dealership and buy a duplicate of a General Motors’ Yukon (not that I can find any good reason to do business with any entity named “Ford” to begin with.) You can go to Wendy’s and buy a hamburger which is made only the way Wendy’s makes it; you can go to Ford and buy a truck only the way Ford makes it. There is no way a reasonable human being would confuse a Big Mac with a Wendy’s Double. (Unless it’s 3:00 in the morning after a long night of bar hopping, and even then, I doubt the difference would be mistakable. Even drunks know the difference between a great hamburger and a Big Mac.)

Chazpro Magic sells a trick called, “Die Cypher II“ made of brass. Would it be considered legitimate competition for another magic manufacturer to create an identical version of Chazpro’s trick — down to the precise measurements of the die? Why do I even have to ask the question?

Also, the phrase “free market society” does not mean “anything goes, free-for-all market” in the same way that “free speech” does not mean “anything goes, free-for-all speech.” There are reasonable limits put on a free market and free speech — and for good reason.

Society’s system of laws become more detailed and granular in direct proportion to the numbers of unreasonable people pressing the issue — a number that is, apparently, growing geometrically with the passage of each hour.

It’s like the old saying: just when you think you’ve won the rat race, along come faster rats. Magic has its unfair share of big, fat, hairy rats.

More than once someone has asked how the knock-off manufacturer would react if someone knocked-off one of their tricks. But, in the sort of wicked irony only saved for Last Straw occasions, knock-off manufacturers don’t have any original ideas. That’s why they take ideas from others.

I finished off my response this way:

This is not and probably never will be a legal issue. This is an ethical and moral issue. You cannot cram ethics and morals down the throats of people who do not believe in them. But you can sure exclude them from your circle. I’m not so naive to believe most — or even many — will do that. I don’t believe most people in magic give this particular ethics issue a second thought. But this issue matters to me and if I’m one of three people left shouting from the rooftops, fine.

Fortunately, I don’t harbor the dreaded thought that I’ll be one of three people left. Far from it. There are many, many people who share my opinion to a greater degree than not.

Since I’m a fan of quotations, I’ll close this with one, which I think is appropriate:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

And unlike the case of Badlands Bob, or Ghost Kings, we don’t know who is the author of that.