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Teller performs "A Rose and Her Shadow"A few magicians have used this combined arsenal to good effect, like Teller of Penn and Teller, who in 2012 sued a Belgian magician named Gerard Dogge, a.k.a. Bakardy, for posting an online explanation of Teller's "A Rose and Her Shadow" routine and offering to sell instructions for it, which Teller had meticulously protected years earlier. Teller won his case, but only after two years of complex legal wrangling.For most magicians, these legal tools are just too flawed to work, not to mention the inherent exposure involved in obtaining a patent. For copyrights, there are few tests or guidelines to determine when a routine deserves protection—a 1943 court once declared magician Charles Hoffman's Think-a-Drink routine not dramatic enough for protection—or when an act is similar enough to violate copyright.Charles Hoffman performs his Think-a-Drink trickAs Steve Leventhal, an amateur performer and perhaps the only lawyer to have a motion filed against him for doing magic in a courtroom, puts it: "If you do the same card trick, but produce a different card at the end, is it the same trick or not?"
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