SC - Copyright of Recipes

[david friedman]

At 8:25 PM -0500 2/26/98, LrdRas wrote:
>Hey, folks,
>
>Would it be possible to drop this subject?  We have been over all the legal
>ramifications with both our resident lawyers and our wanna be lawyers.  The
>FACTS are that individual recipes are not copyrightable.

I do not believe that is the case. The material from the copyright office
that was posted clearly implied that, although the information in a recipe
was not copyrightable (ideas in general are not), the text was in principle
copyrightable, and copying the text of an individual recipe might be
copyright violation.

>The bottom line is if you think your individual recipe is worth $1000 then
>don't post it.  If you are seriously concerned with advancing knowledge of
>period cookery then by all means share.  OK?

The relevant question is for potential infringers, not potential victims of
infringement. If you publish someone else's recipe--the actual words, not
just your rewording of the idea--you may be violating copyright law and
there is some risk, although not very much, of legal consequences.

David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University
ddfr at best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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