Re: What constitutes plagarism of recipes?

C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre. "Bob (this one)"
<Bob@xxxxxxxxxx> led the charge, yelling:

sarah bennett wrote:

I submitted my blog to a blog review site, and in the review, they
made a comment implying that I am in a precarious legal situation
because I have posted a few recipes pretty much verbatim (at least as
to the amounts of ingredients used) from a few cookbooks. I provide a
link to whatever cookbook I'm working from when I do make a recipe
that I have not altered. I think that constitutes fair use as a
review of the cookbook, and the contents therein.

If you're reviewing books, it's a legitimate gesture to show what you're
criticizing. Fair use can be pretty liberal under those circumstances.

If you're cooking or telling people how to cook, it's not.

What do you guys think? When I make things straight from a cookbook,
should I just provide a link to the cookbook, and not post a recipe?

Some basics about recipes and copyright:

1) The parts of the recipe under copyright are the headnotes,
instructions and endnotes. The ingredient list is not copyrightable any
more than any other list is. If it were, every recipe would have a
zillion attributions. And every bottle of ketchup would have a zillion
attributions.

2) Copyright covers original expression. Only. So if you take a list of
ingredients and write what to do with them in your own words, it's
legally and technically a new recipe. Or every recipe would have a
zillion attributions.

3) Fair use is a knotty subject here. Cookbooks are copyrighted in their
entirety. Individual recipes, as part of a copyrighted work, are
included in those rights, but only insofar as they constitute original
work. I'd avoid the entire subject and rewrite everything of consequence
about it. If it's a dish you've made, describe how you did it, add some
tips and variations. It's now your recipe. If you haven't made it, don't
use it, for two reasons: first, it's not yours and you can't bring that
same sense of immediacy that good food writing should have, and, second,
you can't be certain how it'll come out.

4) It's a virtual guarantee that cookbooks author will not come after
you if you take recipes from their books. Copyright is a property rights
subject. Infringing someone's copyright but doing them no harm makes any
legal proceeding pointless but still expensive. And it's up to the
copyright holder to demonstrate damage from your actions.

5) Cookbooks virtually never cite any other books. Because most recipes
are adapted or fiddled with enough that the most recent original source
no longer applies. It is specifically not a convention of food writing
to cite sources except as courtesies, and then only rarely. I wouldn't
use links, either.

So, in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I say if you're going to talk
about food and cooking, *you* should do the talking. Either it's your
work or you're just a parrot. If a parrot, why does a reader need you?

Here's a column of mine that flew handily past all editors, and by
implication, all lawyers. I wrote the recipes to fit the context. It's
five recipes with one ingredient list. Or is it one recipe? Who to
credit? How many to credit? Taking it how far back?

Pastorio
-------------------------------------

E QUINQUE UNUM, OR E UNUM QUINQUE
There's a funny thing about cooking. You can take the same
concoction and make more than one thing out of it. Depending on how you
cook it. I noticed that several of my favorite dishes had identical
ingredient lists. Not just the same ingredients, the same proportions.
Stay with me here. We're going to make two of the classic British
accompaniments for beef, and then another classic accompaniment for
chicken so different that no one will suspect that it's the same stuff
cooked differently. Then something entirely different with the same
base. Then something else considerably different. What a country, huh?
POPOVERS
This may be one of the easiest and most foolproof bits of baking
ever. If you read the old cookbooks, they'll try to scare you with this
one. They'll give you a long list of thou shalts and thou shalt nots and
the fact here is that I've never had them fail even though I've done
some of the THINGS YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO and still succeeded.
Makes about a dozen normal-sized popovers or maybe 9 real big ones
1 cup sifted flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 or 3 tablespoons butter, melted
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the flour in a bowl large enough to
hold everything. Separately, combine the eggs and milk and beat to mix.
Add to the flour and mix well with a whisk or mixer. Pour in the butter
and mix just enough to disperse it evenly (less than a minute). Heavily
grease popover pans, custard cups or a muffin tin (and across the top of
the tin, too) and pour the batter into the cups about 3/4 full. (If you
don't use all the cups in the tin, put a little water in the empty
ones.) Bake for 45 or 50 minutes until puffed and golden brown, cut a
small slit in the top of each popover to let the steam escape and bake
for another 10 minutes or so.
Pretty simple, no? Now, let's take the same batter and make
something else. Yes, the exactly same batter.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING
Same batter, made the same way. Yes, precisely identical. The
cookbook writers want you to be afraid of this one, too. Forget them and
their complicated foolishnesses. It's easy; it's good; it's showy.
Makes one 9 by 9 inch pudding
1 cup sifted flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 or 3 tablespoons butter, melted
Heat the oven to 375. Put the flour in a bowl large enough to hold
everything. Separately, combine the eggs and milk and beat to mix. Add
to the flour and mix well with a whisk or mixer. Pour in the butter and
mix just enough to disperse it evenly (less than a minute). Heavily
grease a 9 by 9 baking dish, pour in the batter and bake for about 40
minutes until it puffs up and is a nice golden brown. Serve with any
beef dish and don't spare the gravy.
Ok, we're on a roll. Same batter, different critter.

NOODLE DUMPLINGS
Let's make this very simple. Exactly the same batter only this time
we're cooking it in a stew or soup and, for my tastes, chicken or turkey
is the best. The soup/stew should be at a simmer. Cooking time is very,
very short. The dumplings are sort of like spaetzle or little clumps of
egg noodle.
Serves all the relatives who stayed over after the last big holiday or
maybe 8 normal people
1 cup sifted flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 or 3 tablespoons butter, melted
Bring about a quart or a quart and a half of soup or stew to a simmer (a
low boil) in a sizable pot (about 3 quarts). Drop half-teaspoon blobs of
batter onto the soup and cook for maybe 5 minutes at the outside. Serve
immediately.

CREPES
Yep. Same exact batter. Different tools.
Makes, oh, 12 to 20 crepes depending on you
same ingredients as above
Same mixing method. Heat a skillet (non-stick is best, 6 to 8 inches is
good) over medium heat and butter lightly or spray with Pam or something
like it. Put two or three tablespoons of the batter in the pan and tilt,
swirl, shake the pan doing whatever acrobatics necessary to make a thin
coating across the pan bottom. Return to heat and bake for a minute or
so. The bottom should be browned. Turn the crepe and cook on the second
side for maybe 30 seconds. If it takes longer or shorter, adjust the
heat. That's it.
Fill the crepes with good solids and sauce with thick liquids.
Examples: crab meat and Newburg sauce. Chicken and cream sauce. Fresh
tuna strips and Bearnaise sauce. Sauteed apples and cinnamon-flavored,
Amaretto-laced, thin whipped cream. Make up your own.
Last one and a winner it is. It can be made with your favorite
fruits. Ripe pears and fresh, pitted cherries are my outstanding candidates.

FRUIT PUFF
Yep, still the same batter.
Ingredients: yeah, yeah. Same deal, plus the fruit and sauce.
2 large pears, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped or a quart of
fresh, pitted cherries
pinch each of ground cinnamon, ginger and allspice
Store bought thick fudge sauce (or your favorite homemade)
Heat oven to 375. Heavily grease a 9 by 12 baking dish (or something
close). Put half the fruit into the dish, sprinkle spices over, pour in
the batter and then scatter the rest of the fruit over top. Bake about
45 minutes until puffy and golden brown. Meanwhile, warm the sauce.
Serve in the baking dish with too much sauce.


If she rips off the whole recipe, Bob, or enough of it that you can
see where she stole it from, she's in the ***.

If she just pinched the ingredient list and paraphrased the heating up
bit, she's sweet.

EOFD.
--

Dr Zen

I am kind enough to forget
injured pride, harsh words,
stupid things and remember
that we only have each other
between here and the void.
http://gollyg.blogspot.com
.