Quite often in books I will read a magican who is explaning a trick say that he uses a particular move, technique etc. but that they can't reveal it as it belongs to another magician. They will then usually refer you to a text so that you can buy it if you want to find out more. Fair enough. Now, my question is, how soon after a magician dies is it permissable to reveal their secret techniques? In other words, a magician can explain a Dai Vernon move in the context of a trick they are explaining (because he is dead) but not a Simon Lovell move because he isn't.

That's pretty morbid, do you have any secrets you're waiting to share? hehehe. I don't know if maybe you used the term copyright in the subject for lack of a better word but there is no reason you couldn't reveal another magicians secrets in your own words. I'm not a lawyer but I've done quite a bit of research on it (Just ask Brad Christian) anyway.

It's more of a courtesy and ethics thing. I suspect the only reason other people write about Dai Vernon's stuff is because he is not around to write it himself anymore. Not that they were waiting for him to kick so they could reveal his secrets

-Dan

A lot of this gets into intellectual property, and that topic is enough to give nearly anyone a headache.

It is a penumbra....a gray area, if you will.