Evan Charles Cloyd (howtoDisturbReality) Exposed

[Mark]

For hard evidence, please check post #13.

I am writing this on behalf of a friend named Phil. After talking to him and asking some others what to they thought of the situation, we figured the only way to deal with it was actually by making this thread.

Evan Cloyd hit the 10,000 YouTube subscribers mark and decided to host a contest celebrating this accomplishment. Nothing wrong with that (although I strongly disagree with people getting subscribers off of ruining the art of magic, but that aside). The actual problem is with the contest prizes:

Originally Posted by Evan Cloyd

5th: 4GB Flash Drive of magic

4th: 4GB Flash Drive of magic - Black Scorpion Deck - Blue Bicycle Deck

3rd: 8GB Flash Drive of magic - Black Scorpion Deck - Yellow Bicycle Deck

2nd: 16GB Flash Drive of magic - Black Scorpion Deck - Yellow Bicycle Deck - Invisible Deck

1st: 32GB Flash Drive of magic - Black Scorpion Deck - Yellow Bicycle Deck - Invisible Deck - Ghost Deck - Skype call with me - Copy of "The Game" by Neil Strauss - Disturb Reality T-Shirt

Decks? No problemo. A t-shirt? Fun! But.. flash drives full of magic? And yes.. that is what he means, as he clarified in the contest video. So is he going to give away his own videos which are already available for free.. yet on flash drives? Doubt it. Does he even have 32GB of own video material? Nah.. this can't be right.. he must be duplicating other people's releases to give those to the winners. Or did he purchase all of the included products.. the amount of times he copies it.. which is 64GB of magic for the prizes and another 64GB on top for his own copies.. makes 128GB of magic purchasing. Oh boy, that must be expensive.

Phil actually commented a question to the contest asking whether this was actually legal or not because he doubted that, but Evan didn't reply and even deleted the comment. Worse though, is that before the comment was deleted someone replied with:

Originally Posted by thetrickster222

no one cares

So not cool.. and the fact Evan deleted Phil's comment instead of replying to it (not even by PM if I have to believe Phil, which I do) makes it a lot less cool too.

[KGaborMagic]

OMG
He must have a lot of money, or a lot of time to record that ammount of his own magic tutorials...

[MysteryHand]

He's rich ^^

[The_Logical_Magician]

I hate these kinds of scams on youtube.
And yes, they are scams, either for the participants who will receive worthless stuff or magic dealers and magicians if he plans on sending free magic (and GBs of it).
People don't understand that when you buy a trick, you buy the permission to practice it, you buy a secret that you cannot legally share.
IMO, Evan will either never understand what he's doing wrong, or he'll get in heaps of trouble if someone alerts the correct copyright authorities.

This type of person is the reason magic over the internet is starting to disgust magicians such as myself, he's also the reason for this craziness concerning copyright issues that has recently started (and in these situations, those super-rigid policies are in the right).
Worst of all, when you realise why this is happening, it's demeaning. It's all about popularity and having yourself known over the internet, it's an addiction. And in Evan's case, he could as much be a magician, as a guy who gives away free movies or free music:
THIS IS NOT WHAT MAGIC IS ABOUT!!!

[babyte]

IMO Evan is good man. I really like him. The main thing about prizes is - 5th place is getting 4GB, 4th place is getting th same amount and content 4GB flash driver, but in addition he is throwing 2 decks. So in total he has to buy 32GB videos. Maybe those videos are 1280p or so, so they taking lots of space. Like 1 vid - 700mb or so. Just IMO. Correct me if I am wrong.

Kind regards,
babyte.

P.S. ( sorry for my terrible english :/ )

[Mark]

Originally Posted by babyte

IMO Evan is good man. I really like him. The main thing about prizes is - 5th place is getting 4GB, 4th place is getting th same amount and content 4GB flash driver, but in addition he is throwing 2 decks. So in total he has to buy 32GB videos. Maybe those videos are 1280p or so, so they taking lots of space. Like 1 vid - 700mb or so. Just IMO. Correct me if I am wrong.

Kind regards,
babyte.

P.S. ( sorry for my terrible english :/ )

Don't worry about your English. It's more than fine.

It'd actually be 64GB then because he has to pay for those 32GB for himself too (unless he wouldn't save them on his own system, but I really doubt that). Regardless of it being big video files or not, it are not his so he does still have to pay for each copy he has and makes of it, which (as far as we know of) he didn't do. If he did, he would have no reason to delete Phil's comment and could just have said that.

On top of that, as you might know I don't like exposure videos. However, someone who cannot do sleights properly, teaching those sleights to others, is even worse. Evan is an okay guy and performer, but that's all.

[babyte]

Well, there are scammers all over the whole internet. One less or more it's actually doesn't matter, but you know, we cannot really change anything, LOTS of people going to keep subscribing him, because he is a good teacher, in my opinion, he helps alot of people, about various techniques and etc. He helps em' to leave Close -up magic to go to streets and perform it, he gives lots of tips. Everything is making us think that he is good man, we cannot explain what we whink he is doing wrong to other people. Just my thoughts. :|

[Des]

I agree, Mark. He is almost exactly like any other kid on Youtube to expose magic, except he does it on a way bigger scale, because he just keeps getting subscribers.
He seems like a nice enough guy, but I feel like he represents everything going wrong with magic: exposure, wrong reason to get into magic (have you seen his intro), and now this, which is not only morally wrong but it could be FRACKING ILLEGAL! The fact that somebody said that they don't care it's illegal is pretty scary.

[dynamo]

i have won one of the contests once and on the flash drive thing there was an ebook that costs £10 of amazon and so videos that werent his own the videos were like help videos that he paid for so please find out whats actually on the drive before you complain. But i understand why you did that because of your mate phil

[Mark]

Originally Posted by dynamo

i have won one of the contests once and on the flash drive thing there was an ebook that costs £10 of amazon and so videos that werent his own the videos were like help videos that he paid for so please find out whats actually on the drive before you complain. But i understand why you did that because of your mate phil

It seems that you are complaining about me and this thread, instead of about Evan, but you basically verified exactly what I said (thanks for that, I suppose ).

Evan duplicated the ebook and those videos (which you verified aren't his own) to several flash drives including yours. He did not pay for your copy and if he paid for anything at all, it would be just for his own copies. Every single time he puts the files onto another flash drive to send out to others, like his contest winners, he would have to pay for these files again and again, and he didn't.

That makes him guilty of illegally duplicating those files, and that is exactly why this thread was made.

[maenk]

The true question would beoes he own the rights to distribute that material?
If the answer is yes,everithing's alright.Otherwise,that behabiour must be sued

[dynamo]

Originally Posted by Mark

It seems that you are complaining about me and this thread, instead of about Evan, but you basically verified exactly what I said (thanks for that, I suppose ).

Evan duplicated the ebook and those videos (which you verified aren't his own) to several flash drives including yours. He did not pay for your copy and if he paid for anything at all, it would be just for his own copies. Every single time he puts the files onto another flash drive to send out to others, like his contest winners, he would have to pay for these files again and again, and he didn't.

That makes him guilty of illegally duplicating those files, and that is exactly why this thread was made.

Im not complaining about you in this thread im just disagreeing because evan is a good guy and he must have like some kind of permission to use them or he is using a copy of the book which doesnt display all of the pages

[Mark]

Originally Posted by dynamo

Im not complaining about you in this thread im just disagreeing because evan is a good guy and he must have like some kind of permission to use them or he is using a copy of the book which doesnt display all of the pages

I'm sorry, but I really don't see that as a good reason to defend him, or anyone for that matter. Explain to me why he has removed every single comment and has ignored every single question about whether he has permission to share what is on those flash drives or not? If he would have had permission, he could have just said that instead. There would be no reason for him to remove and ignore those comments.. unless he has something to hide.

Since you seem to want hard evidence, despite of that you already know what is on the flash drives as you said to own one, I decided to take a bit of time to research and ask around. Hereby actual evidence of Evan being guilty (for even more than he was originally accused of):

- The flash drives happen to contain full products from Adam Wilber, Ben Salinas, Blake Vogt, Brad Christian, Calen Morelli, Chris Mayhew, Criss Angel, Dan & Dave, Dani DaOrtiz, Daniel Garcia, Edward Boswell, Eric Jones, Eric Ross, Hanson Chien, Jay Noblezada, Jay Sankey, Justin Miller, Luke Jermay, Neil Strauss, Oz Pearlman, Patrick Kun, Rick Lax, Tom Isaacson and Wayne Houchin. Most of the items are produced by Ellusionist and theory11. Several of the involved parties have already confirmed no permission was given;

- Plenty of those items have never been sold digitally and are merely available on physical DVDs. This means that those files on the flash drives are DVD rips. Even Wayne Houchin's 'Counterfeit Hollingworth' DVD, a very limited item sold only by Wayne himself, can be found on some of the drives Evan has sent out;

- The vast majority of the files, if not all of them, are similar in size to illegal, digital copies of them available on the net. This includes the DVD rips. If someone would make such a DVD rip by himself, let's say Evan did, the sizes would almost always differ from the illegal copies. Since they don't, it means Evan actually put illegal copies of the files on the flash drives. This also means that he probably did not pay for those products at all, not even for a single copy of them;

- Let's put all of the above aside and let's say Evan actually did purchase the items the exact amount of times he has copied and shared them, including the DVDs (God knows where he left all these discs and cases, but let's say he set them on fire for goodness sake). The total value of the items happens to be over $1000(!!) for the 32GB flash drive, and around $500 for the 16GB drive, $250 for the 8GB one and $100 for the 4GB one (and that is not a joke. I can list the exact products that are on them and the prices these are currently being sold for). This means that so far, Evan has had to pay a stunning $11,750 for the contents of the flash drives alone! Sure he did (and yes, this one sentence is sarcastic).

Hope that is enough evidence for you. Evan is guilty. Sorry.

[dynamo]

Originally Posted by Mark

I'm sorry, but I really don't see that as a good reason to defend him, or anyone for that matter. Explain to me why he has removed every single comment and has ignored every single question about whether he has permission to share what is on those flash drives or not? If he would have had permission, he could have just said that instead. There would be no reason for him to remove and ignore those comments.. unless he has something to hide.

Since you seem to want hard evidence, despite of that you already know what is on the flash drives as you said to own one, I decided to take a bit of time to research and ask around. Hereby actual evidence of Evan being guilty (for even more than he was originally accused of):

- The flash drives happen to contain full products from Adam Wilber, Ben Salinas, Blake Vogt, Brad Christian, Calen Morelli, Chris Mayhew, Criss Angel, Dan & Dave, Dani DaOrtiz, Daniel Garcia, Edward Boswell, Eric Jones, Eric Ross, Hanson Chien, Jay Noblezada, Jay Sankey, Justin Miller, Luke Jermay, Neil Strauss, Oz Pearlman, Patrick Kun, Rick Lax, Tom Isaacson and Wayne Houchin. Most of the items are produced by Ellusionist and theory11. Several of the involved parties have already confirmed no permission was given;

- Plenty of those items have never been sold digitally and are merely available on physical DVDs. This means that those files on the flash drives are DVD rips. Even Wayne Houchin's 'Counterfeit Hollingworth' DVD, a very limited item sold only by Wayne himself, can be found on some of the drives Evan has sent out;

- The vast majority of the files, if not all of them, are similar in size to illegal, digital copies of them available on the net. This includes the DVD rips. If someone would make such a DVD rip by himself, let's say Evan did, the sizes would almost always differ from the illegal copies. Since they don't, it means Evan actually put illegal copies of the files on the flash drives. This also means that he probably did not pay for those products at all, not even for a single copy of them;

- Let's put all of the above aside and let's say Evan actually did purchase the items the exact amount of times he has copied and shared them, including the DVDs (God knows where he left all these discs and cases, but let's say he set them on fire for goodness sake). The total value of the items happens to be over $1000(!!) for the 32GB flash drive, and around $500 for the 16GB drive, $250 for the 8GB one and $100 for the 4GB one (and that is not a joke. I can list the exact products that are on them and the prices these are currently being sold for). This means that so far, Evan has had to pay a stunning $11,750 for the contents of the flash drives alone! Sure he did (and yes, this one sentence is sarcastic).

Hope that is enough evidence for you. Evan is guilty. Sorry.

im sorry that i didnt believe you but please can you tell me what you put in google to research this or how you researched this so i can see myself and complain to him

[Mark]

Originally Posted by dynamo

im sorry that i didnt believe you but please can you tell me what you put in google to research this or how you researched this so i can see myself and complain to him

No problem. Apology accepted.

I just looked up winners of Evan's contests and by doing that I found some public information on what is on those flash drives. I also asked some of the winners about the exact details like file sizes and such. All information added up to each other, no discrepancies between the public and private information at all.

And from there it was really easy to contact the involved artists and production companies to find out whether Evan had permission or not, although it was already obvious to me that he didn't.

[dynamo]

but we cant stop people subscribing to his channel he is a good teacher one good thing about evan is that he isnt revealing magic tricks like pressure or thread that you have to buy.

Originally Posted by dynamo

but we cant stop people subscribing to his channel he is a good teacher one good thing about evan is that he isnt revealing magic tricks like pressure or thread that you have to buy.

What tricks dont you have to buy? Every trick was once published by a magician. (in a book for example) Except for the tricks, that were passed on verbally and the tricks, that magician never revealed.

[TheSecretFire]

A couple years ago, he posted a video called "Invisible Deck (Benefits)". Towards the beginning of the video he said: "I'm not going to reveal how it's done, because that's how much I respect this trick and love this trick." But then he posted another video about a year later called "The Invisible Deck (Tutorial, Tips, and Tricks)"....... So apparently he lost respect for the I.D. Goes to show how much he respects the art, and how much he respects himself.

[Will Potter]

or, crazy idea, he is realizing magic stores overly charge customers for the trick, then the loop is highly priced itself. by revealing it, he saved many people, including myself, alot of money. also, how do you know exactly what was on the flash drives if you yourself did not receive one. so how about backing off Evan, growing up, and keeping your thoughts to yourself.

[Mark]

Theft, as in stealing people's hard work, is not an answer to anything. The magic inventors did the work, they get to choose the producers or set the prices, and yes, sometimes the prices are rather upsetting (as can be the case with any kind of product, not just magic) but there may very well be good reasons for that.

Also, pirating products, which is what Evan has done and we know this for a fact for that people who own said drives have publically shown this (see post #15), is illegal and should obviously not be done, let alone for commercial gain which is how it was used in these cases. Evan even illegally shared products of Jay Sankey and Calen Morelli, people he dared to call his friends, them being completely unaware of it till we told them about it.

Last but not least, it is a bit troublesome that you defend Evan for that he "saved you a lot of money". He is not an authority on teaching magic by any means as he can't do his sleights correctly (sleights that can actually be found in free, public domain sources may I add) nor does he handle his props properly, so I'm sorry to break it to you, but in the end one loses a lot more than they gain from him.