If I change a recipe then share it here....

[Sparkly77]

do I have to quote the source?

I have a banana cake in the oven right now, and instead of 3/4 cup sugar I used about 1/4 cup honey and added 50g of sultanas, plus I used wholewheat flour instead of white.

In this instance would I still have to quote the source if I wanted to share it?

 

[Andy M.]

When it comes to recipes and copyrights, keep the following in mind.

The ingredients list is not copyrightable. The instructions are copyright protected. There must be significant change made to the insetructions to avoid copyright infringement.

Citing the source of the recipe (giving credit in a post.) does not make it OK to post a copyrighted recipe.

If possible, post a link to the recipe and state the change in your post.

 

[Sparkly77]

Thanks

 

[GhettoRacingKid]

what if its published on a package?

like the cookie recipe on a bag of domino sugar?

 

[jabbur]

I've wondered that as well. I have many recipes that friends have given me and I have no way of knowing where they got them. So I may not know if it is copyrighted or not.

 

[GhettoRacingKid]

Another member and I chit chatted....

What about having a DC online cookbook.

alot of great recipes are shared here and it would be nice if there was a place where people can post their recipes or maybe post the recipe and cite where they got it from if applicable

 

[Andy M.]

what if its published on a package?

like the cookie recipe on a bag of domino sugar?

I don't know the answer. Does the package indicate the recipe is copyrighted?

Our copyright expert will probably be back online Monday.

 

[Andy M.]

Another member and I chit chatted....

What about having a DC online cookbook.

alot of great recipes are shared here and it would be nice if there was a place where people can post their recipes or maybe post the recipe and cite where they got it from if applicable

If a recipe is copyrighted, posting it here without permission is a violation. Citing the source, whether it's a book, website or whatever, does not make it OK. All it does is make it clear that you knew you were posting a copyrighted recipe.

If the owner of the copyright wanted to make a legal issue of it, the poster and the owner of this site could each be liable for six figure damages.

This is why we are always telling members to post a link to the site were the recipe came from.

 

[kitchenelf]

what if its published on a package?

like the cookie recipe on a bag of domino sugar?

I feel totally comfortable in saying that Domino Sugar holds the copyright to that recipe. If you can change the method to your own words, without ANY significant phrases the same as on the package, then that should be ok.

 

[Sparkly77]

If a recipe is copyrighted, posting it here without permission is a violation. Citing the source, whether it's a book, website or whatever, does not make it OK. All it does is make it clear that you knew you were posting a copyrighted recipe.

If the owner of the copyright wanted to make a legal issue of it, the poster and the owner of this site could each be liable for six figure damages.

This is why we are always telling members to post a link to the site were the recipe came from.

Wow, I'm glad I asked, thanks for that info. The recipe in question in the OP was on a website, so I could just post a link and keep it easy. I certainly DO NOT want to violate any copyrights.

 

[Michael in FtW]

GRK - An on-line cookbook would only be a duplication of what we already have - forums which are divided into categories where members can post their recipes or links to copyrighted recipes on other sites. Nothing could be posted in an on-line cookbook that didn't also qualify as legal for posting in a forum.

The copyright laws do allow you to quote insignificant portions of a larger text and giving proper citations to the source when you use those excerpts in a paper or on a website are to prevent claims of plagiarism. However, the thing about a recipe taken from a website, magazine or cookbook, even if the source has as many as a 1,000 recipes, is that it is not an incidental quote. A recipe constitutes a complete work on its own. Therefore, posting a recipe even with citation to the original source does not constitute "fair use" - it constitutes a copyright violation.

If you have any questions about the DC copyright policy - you should read the

Copyright Policy - PLEASE READ thread posted by GB in our Community Announcements Forum. This is also a part of the Community Policies (found in the same forum) that you agreed to abide by when you joined DC (remember that stuff in a window that you didn't read and just clicked the "I Accept" button without reading when you were signing up to be a DC member?)

I agree with what kitchenelf said - just because it's on a bag doesn't mean it's not copyrighted. After reading this thread I decided to run up to the store and do a little checking (spent almost an hour browsing the shelves and products) ... every package that I looked at that had a recipe on it also had a copyright notice - that means that everything on that package was copyrighted - artwork, photos, text and recipes. Well, there was ONE exception - I didn't find a copyright notice on the Nestle chocolate chips bag with the recipe for Toll House cookies, but I was wearing my driving/computer glasses and it might have been in such small print I missed it.

I think we all have a collection of recipes from "unknown" sources that we got from our Grandma's old recipe cards or that friends have given us over the years. If you have one of those you want to post - you wouldn't have a site to credit, would you?

 

[GhettoRacingKid]

that clears it up.

this copy right thing is sticky.