s h i f t e r d o t o r g | a happening waiting for accident

02 January 2012
by Mike
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Derek and the Pirates, an Update

Soon after my last post concerning magic, piracy and some Internet ne’er-do-wells, I received an email from Derek DelGaudio. He wanted me to know his contest to discover the owners of a magic piracy site had borne fruit. He asked me to withhold some of the details for a little while, as there were some behind-the-scenes things happening, all of which seemed to point towards a positive outcome.

What really stuck with me was his candour about why he did this. Not out of some sense of the greater good for the magic community, but, instead:

…so I can better understand the world I live in. If I can understand it, perhaps, I can improve my chances of making it a better place.

For what it’s worth, I think there’s a lesson there that’s wider than this discussion.

Today I received another email from Derek, one that may well validate the idea of community policing espoused in my original post. It turns out the owners of the original piracy site stepped up and wanted to make amends. They agreed to work with Derek, transforming the site into one with an anti-piracy theme, in exchange for relative anonymity – no release of surnames. With the help of Jonathan Bayme (CEO of theory11), this new venture looks to make the world – at least the magic world – a better place:

So, with thanks to my new friends Brian, Jason and Mr. Jonathan Bayme, the project is underway and we are proud to announce the new Magicsnoop.com, a site that will actively pursue and protect the intellectual property of magicians.

http://www.magicsnoop.com/

Good work, Derek. I look forward to seeing how this new chapter unfolds, and if the world is ready to be made a better place.

22 December 2011
by Mike
1 Comment

Derek and the Pirates

We should have seen it coming. The advent and popularisation of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s was the tell. Here was an invention devised by a scientist in order to share information, because without sharing information, how are new ideas born?

These days the concept of sharing information on the Web ranges from innocent to nefarious, and every stop in between. One of these ways is piracy, which lives more towards the nefarious end of the scale. Unauthorised reproduction or use of copyrighted material has always been a sticking point for content producers and consumers alike, with legislators sprinting to catch up with technology. In some cases, you get what happened in New Zealand this year with The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill, which puts the onus of proving innocence onto the accused. Controversial, to say the least, as it would seem to contradict the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. But I digress.

On 8 December 2011, Derek DelGaudio posted this on Twitter:

@Magic_Snoop I'd appreciate it if you didn't offer my copyrighted material. It's a dick move, not to mention illegal.

08 December 2011 16:20 via webReply RetweetFavorite

@derek_del

Derek DelGaudio

Then, about five hours later,

CONTEST! First to publicly name who owns http://t.co/f5HcAkJn wins a very cool box of goodies!RT @garciamagic & @calenmorelli365, want in?

08 December 2011 21:33 via webReply RetweetFavorite

@derek_del

Derek DelGaudio

After this campaign gained groundswell on Twitter, the offending site was gone by 9 December 2011, replaced with a domain parking page:

The site is down, but contest stands! Win a prize loaded with magic from me, @mwisme @garciamagic @calenmorelli365! (see last tweets) RT

09 December 2011 09:45 via Echofon ReplyRetweetFavorite

@derek_del

Derek DelGaudio

It’s difficult to prove a causative link between DelGaudio’s crusade and the site forced offline. Still, support grew. Within a day or two, many names in magic – famous and non – had contributed prizes to the ‘contest’. People like Jamy Ian Swiss, David Blaine, William Kalush, Helder Guimares, R Paul Wilson, Michael Weber, The Buck Twins, Andi Gladwin, and Daniel Garcia all chipped in. This unity of purpose astounded me. (As of this writing, it doesn’t look like anyone has collected the bounty on the disestablished site’s owner.)

I know magic, like other creative endeavours, has been affected by digital copyright infringement. Why buy when you can download? To be honest, I always thought the arguments put forward by motion picture studios and record companies were hollow, just a remnant of centralised control of product and profit in an increasingly decentralised world. I sided with those claiming piracy and theft are not the same thing. In the conjuring world, though, I don’t know about this position. A relatively small community with a limited economic influx sees the downstream impact of copyright infringement quite quickly. It was this small community that gathered, and essentially caused the site to vanish, without the weight of entertainment cartels or legislatures.

Ultimately, I don’t know if this is a win for DelGaudio. Anyone with a Google and a bit of intuition can find what are presumably the files formerly hosted on the shuttered site. Because of peer-to-peer file sharing, no longer is there one place where the files are kept, so removing them from the Internet becomes nigh impossible. Of course, that won’t stop governments from crafting laws with unanticipated side effects. After all, long-term thinking isn’t something in which governments excel.

So what, then? Has what has happened with Derek DelGaudio’s magic change the face of piracy? Doubtful. For some, information is meant to be free, and to that end it will be made so. Technology will outpace law, and people will have their intellectual property taken beyond their control. But the idea of a community policing itself seems far less problematic than sweeping legislation that risks the democratisation of information.

11 November 2011
by Mike
0 comments

Common Language

Years ago, I read a collection of poetry from Adrienne Rich called The Dream of a Common Language. A lyric work, it deals with identity, and growth, and honesty. Striking.

The title has always intrigued me, illuminating the gap between people that has always existed. I believe Rich meant it to uncover differences in gender and culture, but the same goes for all words that define us and separate us at the same time. It’s these implied and imposed divisions that cause medical terms to be in Latin and technical explanations to be unerringly complex.

In a way, we all need a level of opacity in language to form our boundaries and shape us. If we can’t communicate with those like us, what hope can there be for any understanding? The only issue comes when we want to connect with others outside our group.

In magic, this division is prevalent. It’s to be expected really, in a situation where the very nature of what occurs is based in secrecy and deception. But then there comes a time where the deception needs to be brought into the light, to have people – real, live, non-magician people – observe and interact. That’s when what we learn in books and from others falls sadly short in making the connection. For example:

Square: If you work with cards, you know what ‘square the deck’ means. But give a deck of cards to a participant and tell them to square it, and you may be met with a blank stare. This is one of those times when a simple ‘make sure they’re all straight’ may suffice.
Shuffle: I feel the days of using cards for recreation are on the wane, and the concept of ‘shuffling’ will soon be like calling recorded music ‘albums’ – a nostalgic nod to a fond past. Instead, a word like ‘mix’ conveys the idea and the action in one. Granted, this may be a stretch, but think of how prevalent the mimed shuffling action is performed as an instruction.
Patter: This is one for the insiders, but I think still proves the point. ‘Patter’ is an essentially derogatory term, denoting rote speech. Actors don’t refer to their scripted lines as ‘patter’, even though actors and magicians share the end goal of entertainment. ‘Dialogue’ or ‘presentation’ seems a better choice.

These are only a few top-of-mind examples, and I’m sure there are far better ways in getting these ideas across. It’s a conscious effort to make the connection with people, to not drive a wedge between what we know and what others experience. A conscious, sometimes difficult, but worthwhile effort.