SC - Copyright of recipes...

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hi all,

With regard to the whole "King's Taste Comments" thread, I'm afraid
we're straying bit away from the point.

Just to recap, I believe most of us are in agreement that we don't mind
our recipes being printed and distributed for the educational benefit of
fellow Society members. Giving author credit is really more a matter of
courtesy than any kind of safeguard that our work won't be misused,
since such safeguards seem rather hard to enforce.

My only source of objection is that I'd rather not have anyone making a
profit from my work without my consent. I'd really be much more
comfortable with the idea of the recipes being distributed for free, or
at most for the cost of printing / copying.

If it really is true that someone was essentially drummed out of a
household, a local group, or the SCA overall, because he had destroyed
his copies of the recipe collection in question, I'd have to at least
question the motives of anyone who would criticize the integrity of such
a move. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do on impulse, but if
legal or ethical questions had been raised, and the gentle decided it
was too much of a risk, how can we not be concerned for the ethics of
those who would criticize the move? If the alleged events never actually
occurred, then there's no need to worry.

Perhaps we could think of some way to present this material
inexpensively and equitably, but I think the amount of arguing on this
subject has become distinctly counterproductive. Perhaps we could expend
our energies in finding a solution to this problem, instead of worrying
about an unfortunate, immutable,  (and possibly exaggerated) past?

I, for one, would be willing to sign a release for the material I'm
responsible for (assuming there is any!) given reasonable assurance that
such a collection would not be sold for personal profit, etc. Now all we
have to do is take such steps as are necessary to be sure the phrase,
"Reprinted by permission of the author" is true on all counts. Just like
an anthology of short fiction, or something like that.

Now, how do we get the blasted thing on paper?

Adamantius
troy at asan.com
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================