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Teller Awarded $545,000 in Magic Fight..

Teller Awarded $545,000 in Magic Fight..

By Matt Heuer for Courthouse News Service..

LAS VEGAS (CN) – A federal judge ordered a Belgian magician to stop selling a magic prop that infringes on a trick created by Raymond Teller, of Penn & Teller, and awarded Teller $545,000 in damages and costs.
     Teller prevailed in a copyright case that accused Gerard Dogge of stealing his “Shadows” magic trick and selling it online.
     Dogge also goes by the name Gerard Bakardy. He demonstrates the trick-designated as copyrighted by him – on a YouTube clip called “ The Rose and Her Shadow .” At the end of the 9-minute clip, Bakardy offers to sell the props needed to perform it.
     Teller claims that his own magic trick, called “Shadows,” uses a “spotlight trained on a small vase containing a single flower, a rose, which is set on a table. The light falls in such a manner that the shadow of the rose is projected onto a white screen” and “the magician enters the otherwise peaceful scene with a knife and proceeds to use it to dramatically sever first the leaves and then the petals of the rose’s shadow on the screen.
     "Slowly, correspondingly, one by one, the leaves of the real rose casting the shadow fall to the ground, breaking from the stem at exactly the point where the magician severed the shadow projected on the screen.”
     U.S. District Judge James Mahan on March 20 granted Teller’s motion for summary judgment on copyright infringement liability but denied his motions for unfair competition and damages.
     Mahan said Dogge did not participate in pretrial procedures and refused to attend the trial in person, so Teller asked the court for a default judgment against Dogge for willful infringement and unfair competition, a permanent injunction and attorney’s fees.
     Mahan found that a “ default judgment is appropriate ‘when a party against whom a judgment for affirmative relief is sought has failed to plead or otherwise defend.” On July 9 he adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation to impose sanctions in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 16 and 17.
     Teller also sought statutory damages, which Mahan said could range from $750 to $150,000.
     Because Teller sought a permanent injunction, Mahan said, the maximum statutory amount is “unnecessary to deter” Dogge’s “further violations.”
     "It is unclear whether defendant sold any of the offered illusions,“ Mahan found. "Because this court may award damages ‘even for uninjurious and unprofitable invasions of copyright,’ the court finds damages in the amount of $15,000 appropriate.”
     In approving a permanent injunction , Mahan said Teller “is likely to suffer irreparable injury” because Dogge’s “infringement is likely to continue.”
     Teller asked for $989,568 in attorney’s fees.
     Mahan found Dogge to be “exceptionally difficult and unresponsive, necessitating numerous motions and responses” to force his cooperation.
     Mahan awarded Teller $30,000 in costs and $500,000 in attorney’s fees for a total judgment against Dogge of $545,000.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/10/08/72232.htm

Photos: Teller’s ‘Tempest’ premiere is ‘pure brilliance’ and Broadway bound; more Shakespeare to come?

Photos: Teller’s ‘Tempest’ premiere is ‘pure brilliance’ and Broadway bound; more Shakespeare to come?

If The Bard of Stratford-on-Avon was alive today, he would be making big bucks writing episodes of Kevin Spacey’s “House of Cards” or Las Vegas writer Anthony Zuiker’s various “CSI” series with Laurence Fishburne and Ted Danson.

Shakespeare’s last play, “The Tempest,” was filled with mystery, crime and intrigue, but he also added wizardry and wonder. So when our silent Rio headliner magician Teller decided to produce his vision, you knew that there’d be magic — and what incredible illusions he has created to weave naturally into the story that England’s preeminent dramatist envisioned in the 1600s.

Shakespeare’s works — among them “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Taming of the Shrew,” “Othello,” “Much Ado About Nothing” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor” — are known throughout the world. The greatest writer in the English language — yes, every one of us had to study him in school — created comedy, history, tragedy and poetry in his works.

Teller read him while at school. Then for 30 years, he literally dreamed of telling the tale of “The Tempest.” Five years ago, the dream started taking shape, and two years ago our Smith Center for the Performing Arts agreed to partner with Harvard’s American Repertory Theater to present Teller’s vision…   ( Nice article by Robin Leach for Las Vegas Sun. Be sure to check out the slide shows..)

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Penn Jillette’s Original Pilot ‘Street Cred’ is Green Lit by the Travel Channel

Penn Jillette’s Original Pilot ‘Street Cred’ is Green Lit by the Travel Channel

"Rio magician headliners Penn & Teller know how to keep busy.

On the heels of Teller’s new side gig, Penn Jillette has signed on to host a new hidden-camera show for the Travel Channel.

The network announced today that it has green lit production for “Street Cred,” an original pilot that follows Penn as he scours the country for America’s best street performers. The magician, comedian and former street performer will team up with undercover experts to seek out the show’s unwitting contestants through hidden cameras, rewarding the best with a $10,000 tip.

The half-hour pilot is produced by High Noon Entertainment and was green lit along with two other pilots…”

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