Recipes and copyright -- this topic has come up a number of times in the past

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Colleagues, the following is FYI and does not necessarily reflect my own

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Can a Recipe Be Stolen?

By Joyce Gemperlein

Special to The Washington Post

Wednesday, January 4, 2006; F01

Like most teenagers, Dana Simms and 11 other members of the Tilden Woods

Swim Team know more about iPods and Google than about pea pods and

kugel. So when they began soliciting recipes for a cookbook to benefit

cancer research last summer, they were startled that technology and

cooking converged.

" We all know about plagiarism, copyright and intellectual property

rights issues, but we hadn't given them a thought when it came to the

cookbook, " said Simms, a junior at Walter High School in

Bethesda. When a potential contributor fretted about handing over a

recipe for Toll House cookies that appears online, in many cookbooks --

and on bags of semisweet chocolate chips -- " we did begin to worry a

little, " she said.

The girls knew the legal concepts from high school, and copyright and

intellectual property issues were being drummed into them because of

lawsuits on downloading music into MP3 players and iPods. But here were

similar issues in the kitchen.

Some friends and relatives were hesitant to contribute favorite recipes

that had been culled from cookbooks or online databases. Could they be

accused of plagiarism or a violation of intellectual property rights?

What if the recipes were tweaked? Is using a smidge more mayonnaise in a

chicken salad and substituting mango chunks for peaches enough to call

the recipe your own? It's one thing to hand down a family recipe from

one generation to the next, but what about offering a

not-entirely-original recipe for publication in a cookbook, even for a

charitable cause?

" What this reflects is a rising awareness over the last 20 years of

copyright issues . . . and the chilling effect of copyright enforcement

.. . . people being intimidated out of using basic common sense about

things that would or should never generate a lawsuit, " said Siva

Vaidhyanathan, author of " Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of

Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity. "

It's highly unlikely, he said, that anyone would be sued for putting

someone else's published recipe -- with or without attribution -- in a

charity cookbook or posting it on the Internet where it can be

disseminated to millions of cooks almost instantly. In fact, said

Vaidhyanathan, an assistant professor of culture and communications at

New York University, it would be unusual even to receive a nasty letter

about it. " There isn't [big] money at stake. "

U.S. copyright law addresses recipes, but what holds sway can be called

either ethics or etiquette. Cooking is not considered inventing; rather,

it evolves. Copyright law specifies that " substantial literary

expression in the form of an explanation or directions, " such as a

cookbook, can be copyrighted but that a mere list of ingredients cannot

receive that protection.

The ethics guidelines of the International Association of Culinary

Professionals focus on giving proper attribution to recipes that are

published or taught. The association advises using the words " adapted

from, " " based on " or " inspired by, " depending on how much a recipe has

been revised. ( " Adapted from " is the phrasing favored by The Washington

Post and many other newspaper food sections, which, along with culinary

instructors, enjoy " fair use " of someone's creation for the purpose of

teaching, news reporting, scholarship or research.) The only time a

recipe should be printed without attribution, the association contends,

is when it has been changed so substantially that it no longer resembles

its source.

In cyberspace, however, there's some confusion about where to draw the

line. Many Web sites carry warnings about posting " copyrighted "

material, but most do not define what that means in cooking circles.

Rappaport, a Baltimore teacher, operates a blog called Coconut &

Lime in which she shares recipes she has liked. She says her

understanding -- a common one -- is that if she changes two or three

ingredients in a recipe, it becomes her own and requires no attribution.

At the eGullet Society of Culinary Arts & Letters, an online site for

epicures, copyright laws and courtesies are a constant topic of

discussion, said founder A. Shaw, a lawyer-turned-food writer.

Shaw contends that posting a lengthy discussion of legal and ethical

conduct, enforcing detailed membership requirements and constant

monitoring of content -- including recipes -- keep his site from joining

what he calls " the Wild West " of online copyright violations.

For amateur cooks who participate in the Pillsbury Bake-Off, the recipes

they are passing off as their own had better be their own. Bake-Off

officials perform " originality " searches on the 100 finalists, said

, senior public relations manager. Contestants whose

recipes do not have at least " several significant differences " from any

found in a thorough search, she says, are disqualified.

Professional cooks who publish recipes that blatantly copy colleagues'

work without attribution are often shunned or gossiped about, but even

then, lawsuits are rare.

Washington chef and cookbook author Nora Pouillon said she would not sue

if she saw her formula for, say, cherry clafoutis, on a Web site. She'd

be the first to say that she based her recipe on versions of the French

specialty featuring kirsch-soaked fruit that she had seen or eaten

during her childhood in Austria.

Wonderful food, she points out, is more than a recipe. It also is the

sum of a cook's experience, eye for detail and technique, plus the

quality of the ingredients.

Pouillon said she's flattered if somebody passes along one of her

recipes. " It's nice to get credit, but I really feel that a recipe is

something to share, " she said. On the other hand, if someone is a

terrible cook, she said, she would rather that person not tell people

that the formula for yam vichyssoise came from her.

All proceeds of " Cooking for the Cure " are donated to cancer research.

For a copy, send a check for $15 plus $3 shipping to " Cooking for the

Cure, " 6900 Stonewood Court, Rockville, Md. 20852, or

e-maildanabari89@... more information.

Joyce Gemperlein, a former food editor, lives in North Bethesda.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/03/AR2006010300316.\

html

--

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