Updated Community Guidelines - please read

I have a ton of community and church cookbooks.  I only checked 12 and out of those 12, 10 have copyrights, including my sister's church cookbook.  I was really surprised that those would be copyrighted...never even thought to look.

carole

Carole I think it's just something we've never really had to think about all these years.  Friends sharing with friends!  Nothing more, nothing less.

We can still share - we just have to find new ways to do it.

I've been following this discussion with a lot of interest, because I'm getting ready to present a proposal to do a cookbook to the leaders of a community group. I've done one of these already and used Morris Press as
the publisher. 

Morris Press addresses the copyright issue in their introductory materials. Cookbooks they publish do carry a copyright notice--and the copyright belongs to them, not to the organization that provided the recipes. As they explain it, the copyright protects their stock materials such as art, formats, etc. They do say that "recipes cannot be copyrighted," but after researching this on the website of the U. S. Copyright Office and other sites, I'm not sure that is exactly true.

Here's a link to the copyright office's statement on this issue:

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html

And here are some other good links:

http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/intellectual-property/copyrighting-recipes.html

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

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/FAST/reciperules.html

As you can see, lists of ingredients can't be copyrighted. As I understand it, neither can titles (although titles can be trademarked). It's the directions that are questionable. Even the Copyright Office is a little vague on this. Some of these issues may need to be settled by the courts, but from what I have read, usually the amount of money involved is too small for a large company to bother suing over it. But that doesn't mean they can't, and some might. So it seems that a lot of this is open to interpretation. The owners of this site have interpreted this a certain way, and we are obligated to abide by that. 

Sue, your non-copyrighted cookbook might or might not be covered by implied copyright. This is another wrinkle! 

As far as using brand names, when I was doing my first community cookbook, I used generic terms as much as possible. For example, if someone turned in a recipe calling for what I'll call the cookie that starts and ends with "O," I edited that recipe to call for "cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies" instead.

For our cookbook, nobody turned in a newspaper or magazine clipping as their contribution, so we really had no way of knowing the original sources of the recipe submissions we got. I only rejected one recipe, and that was for a food-safety issue. I actually submitted a recipe that had been previously published in a cookbook, since Morris Press maintains that it is OK to do this. However, I changed the title and completely rewrote the instructions to make them much shorter. Maybe that was okay, but I probably won't do it again. This time around, I will need to pay much more attention to copyright issues.

Good discussion!

Semisweet Lady

Sue, your non-copyrighted cookbook might or might not be covered by implied copyright. This is another wrinkle! 

You're very right.

As I understand it, images and methods are the two copyrightable pieces to a recipe.  However - our team has decided for now not to mess with any of it and just say no, nothing, period the end without permission.

I've made recipes that I've changed, left things out, changed main ingredients - used buttermilk instead of sour cream and havarti instead of cheddar.  Things that in my cooks mind, are interchangable.  Do they change the recipe?  I suppose if you take the cheddar and bacon away from a bacon cheddar burger...you've changed the recipe.

I think it just depends on much time you want to spend typing up your changes.  Many folks would rather just copy and paste and I can completely understand why bloggers get so upset.  They work hard and their can be a lot at stake.  Look at how Pioneer Woman has grown over the years.

sstetzel

We can still share - we just have to find new ways to do it.

Thru PM's or email!

Semisweet Lady

For example, if someone turned in a recipe calling for what I'll call the cookie that starts and ends with "O," I edited that recipe to call for "cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies" instead.

We're not allowed to say Oreo?   What if we said Nabisco Oreo?  Would that be okay?  lol.

I can see I'm gonna have a difficult time with this.  

I'm just funnin' with ya'.   I only posted one recipe on here anyway as far as I can remember.

Semisweet is right.  This is a good discussion.

Widdle_NY

We're not allowed to say Oreo?   What if we said Nabisco Oreo?  Would that be okay?  lol.

LOL!

It kind of fell apart when somebody turned in a recipe calling for Rolos. I just couldn't figure out what else to call a Rolo!

Adria_NyxxTX

sstetzel

We can still share - we just have to find new ways to do it.

Thru PM's or email!

Links too! I know people worry about clicking on random links but I tend to think if one my 'friends' posts a link here, it's someplace they've visited and consider safe.

Semisweet Lady

I just couldn't figure out what else to call a Rolo!

   Hmm.  That is a tough one.  Let me think about this and I'll get back to you.  BTW...they're one of my favorite candies.   Would you like to share that recipe?  lol. 

Widdle_NY

Would you like to share that recipe?

HA HA!

Actually, I think this is one I can share. In the cookbook, we had it formatted with ingredient list first, then instructions, etc. I won't post all that, but basically, you take some pretzels and put them on a cookie sheet. Then you put a Rolo on top of each one. Bake 'em at 300 for 4 minutes, then put a pecan half on top of each. Mash the pecan down in the warm Rolo a little bit. That's it!

That sounds nice and easy and very tasty too.   I like easy.   A lot.  lol.

Thanks, Semisweet!

Widdle_NY

Semisweet Lady

I just couldn't figure out what else to call a Rolo!

   Hmm.  That is a tough one.

Round chocolate covered caramels that come in a roll?

Adria_NyxxTX

that come in a roll?

That part would confuse me, my mind would go to Tootsie rolls and then I'd be confused by caramel cuz there's no caramel in those and I'd spend hours Googling to try to figure it out.

I have that kind of demented mind.

 I could change a recipe just a little and make it my own. right?  What a way to shut down recipes.  The last one out, turn the lights out!

Sheesh Morningdove that's a little dramatic, LOL.  The Recipe folks can still talk about recipes and cooking just like they always have, they just have use their own pictures like Carol1229 does or share links to things they find unless they find them here on our own site.  There are 48,000 recipes on Tasteofhome.com - that's a ton!  Plenty to talk about I think.

As far as changing a recipe just a little to make it your own - it takes more than a little.  You have to change at least 3 ingredients to something different, not just full fat to non fat but more like milk to yogurt.

Does that make sense?