Forum Moderators: not2easy
The memories of growing up with the dish, and the directions of how to make the recipe can be, but not the ingredients themself.
Does anyone have any experience with getting a book published? Have you ever gathered things online and ran into this grey area?
It almost seems like all I have to do is find the recipes I like, copy and paste just the ingredients portion, and fill in the rest, like the directions of what to do with the ingredients/how to make the dish and I'm on my way to a book.
I would basically ignore every other part of the recipe (on purpose). I just want the ingredients. I wouldn't be taking words and switching them around and trying to pass the recipe off as my own or anything like that.
I have quite a few recipes of my own, but not enough for a book at this point.
The U.S. Copyright office says this:
"Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection"
I would have no problem crediting the source/website where I found the recipe in the book.
Any thoughts?
Ingredients need to be standardised, as do weights and measures. Terminology needs to be consistent - and relevant for the market or country you intend to target. For example:
Zucchini or courgette?
Fillet steak, filet mignon, chateaubriand or tenderloin?
Broil or grill?
How much is a cup?
One very important point - how will you know if the recipes work? Just because they are to be found online doesn't mean that they're any good. If you're going to put your name to something - unless you're going to call the book something like "The little book of recipes ripped off from the web" - then you better be sure that it's good.
If you're going to take the recipes of others and give them a credit in your book then, unless you've sought permission and agreed publishing terms (payments & licensing), you're heading for trouble.
In some respects you would be better off NOT giving credits, but instead just using the list of ingredients and providing your own cooking instructions. Morally it's somewhat grey, but as you've pointed out, you cannot copyright a list, only the presentation of it.
Personally, I think your idea is a bad one. Certainly in the way you have described it here. That, of course, may just be down to the way you have expressed it or the way that I have interpreted it.
Just putting together multiple lists of ingredients does not a cookery book make. It needs the personality of the author(s) or cook(s). It needs the clear guidance offered by one who knows how to make the recipe offered a success. It needs personality.
By all means, take the recipes from the web. Try them, prove them, adapt them and write them as if they were your own, for once you've done all that they will be yours.
Good luck with your idea.
Syzygy
Yes, I would of course add my own instructions and verbage on each recipe. I would try each recipe and take pictures for the book as well.
It wouldn't just be a book of ingredients.
I just wanted to know about the legalities, and I think I have my answer.
Cheers.
I just recently got my book "The little book of recipes ripped off from the web" published, and it's been making me a fortune!
Any chance you could send me a review copy - I've been thinking about doing something like this myself... ;-)
