SC - King's taste comments

[Chris Peters]

At 7:28 AM -0500 2/17/98, Louise Sugar wrote:
><------Can attest to the fact that it was not this little pink bunny...I may
>be dumb but I ain't stupid.....and since when are recipies copywrited?  is
>this person going to sue everyone who ever scrambled an egg?

You are responding to a third hand account as if it were fact. A tells B
something about copyright law. B tells C. C tells you. You attack A ("this
person" in your response, probably me). For what A (if I am correctly
identifying the exchange) actually said, see the bottom of this post.

To answer your question, copyright covers expression not idea. Hence a
particular recipe is copyright in the same sense as a particular book. The
underlying idea--scrambling an egg or boy meets girl--is not protected by
copyright.

I can assure you that if you publish a book which reproduces verbatim a
large number of recipes from someone else's in copyright cookbook, without
permission, you are in violation of copyright law and are quite likely to
get sued. One recipe is not so clear, because the definition of "fair use"
in copyright law is rather imprecise and the amount copied is one of the
criteria.

In any case, copyright law has nothing to do with your using the recipe,
only with your copying it.

Ras writes, on the same topic:

>This statement made by whoever made it is nothing more than silly posturing
>and smacks not a little bit of dishonorable behavior and a overinflated since
>of self-importance.

And he again is taking as gospel a third hand account originating with
someone of whom he knows nothing, and attacking an unknown person (again,
probably me) on the basis of it.

The following are, I suspect, the EMails I sent which are the basis for all
of this:
- --
>	Can I print and sell my collection or will I be breaking the law in
>doing so?

I think that printing and selling a collection of other people's worked out
recipes without their permission is probably in violation of copyright law
and is clearly discourteous as well. The Miscellany has a very broad
permission to reprint at the beginning of it, so you are free to include
any of my recipes provided that you don't change or abridge them and do
credit them (and are not selling on a commercial scale--I think the limit
in the permission is 200 copies). As for other people's recipes, I suggest
asking for permission, and only including the recipe if you get it.
- --
>	I checked my collection and all credits are in place for where each
>recipe came from. I really don't want to step on any toes or have the
>law looking for me.

The legal issue is not settled by giving credits--copyright is the right to
control who makes copies.

>	Another thought comes to mind, because others want copies of my
>collection, would it be permissible to print at my cost and give the
>printed collection at no charge to people that request it? This would
>keep me from bulk printing, and stay under the 200 copy limit for the
>Miscellany.

That is a hard question. There is a legal category under copyright law
called "fair use." Unfortunately, it is not very well defined--there are a
bunch of criteria, and the more of them you satisfy the more likely it is
that a court will consider you covered by the fair use exception to the
copyright law. Giving your copies away would strengthen your position, but
not automatically guarantee that what you are doing is legal. Similarly,
including only one recipe from a source instead of forty would strengthen
your position.

I think the chance that anyone would actually take legal action against you
for giving away such a collection is very close to zero, but if they did I
am not certain they would lose the case.

Hope that helps.
- ---

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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