Open Research Principles

Why We Publish Research

Ideas should be shared. Contributions should be credited. History should be preserved, not rewritten.

At Bacon Magic, we believe that sharing knowledge and respecting original creators are essential to the progress of magic.

Open Research is our public archive of creative and technical work, including products we have already released, projects currently in development, and ideas that have not yet been commercialized.

Through this platform, we document our methods, design processes, technical contributions, and the earlier works that inspired us. We want these records to be accessible, searchable, and useful to magicians and creators around the world.

Our goal is not simply to establish who published an idea first, but to make it easier for others to understand where ideas came from, how they evolved, and how they can be developed further.

We welcome earlier references, corrections, independent research, and new improvements. Each project clearly states what we have chosen to share and how others may use it.

Attribution in the magic community

Magic has its own tradition of creator credit, which is separate from legal patent rights. Publishing a principle openly does not erase the history of those who explored related ideas before. We distinguish between:

• Original inspiration — what directly led to our work.
• Our contribution — what we added.
• Related prior work — earlier creations we know of, whether or not they inspired us.

When attribution is uncertain, we mark it as Unverified rather than guessing.

Usage permissions

Each project carries two independent settings:

• Disclosure level (P1–P3) — how much technical detail is published: concept only (P1), method explained (P2), or full technical disclosure with files (P3).
• Usage permission (M0–M3) — what you may do with it:
  • M0 — Published for Reference: read, study, cite and discuss. No reproduction or commercial rights granted.
  • M1 — Performance & Personal Use: build and perform for personal use; credit the source when sharing your derivative work publicly where practical.
  • M2 — Commercial Use with Credit: build, improve and sell, crediting Bacon Magic's contribution in product descriptions or instructions. Suggested credit: “Based on research by Bacon Magic.”
  • M3 — Fully Open: research, modify, share and commercialize freely; formal open licenses apply to design files where provided.

Where design files, code or tutorials are provided under a formal license (such as CC BY 4.0 or CERN-OHL-P-2.0), that license governs the use of those specific materials.

Contributions, corrections and disputes

Anyone may submit historical references, credit corrections or improvements through the form on each project page. Our rules:

• Nothing is published without review.
• Verified historical additions are published in the project's research history with the revision date — including additions that are unflattering to us.
• Substantive attribution disputes are published as summaries with evidence and our response; unresolved ones are marked Disputed, not hidden.
• Unverified accusations, abuse and private disputes are not published.
• Submitter emails are never published.

Records and versions

Each project has a permanent ID (BM-OR-0001 and onward) and a version history. The research publication date is fixed by the system and never overwritten by later edits. Significant revisions create a new version; the original remains viewable.

For products that entered Open Research after their commercial release, we distinguish three dates and never conflate them: Product Released (the original market date), Original Development (the actual development period, where records allow), and Research Published (when this research record was first published here). A research archive created years after a product launch does not erase the product's earlier public history, nor do we backdate research articles to the product's release date.

Likes and product decisions

Likes on unreleased projects tell us which ideas the community wants to see developed. A like is an expression of interest — it is not a pre-order, deposit or purchase commitment. Commercialization decisions also weigh cost, difficulty and market fit.

Disclaimer

Open Research content is provided “as is” for study and inspiration. Bacon Magic makes no warranty as to fitness for any particular purpose and accepts no liability for the construction or performance of devices described. Legal permissions and magic-community credit expectations are separate things, and both are described honestly on each project page.