[Sca-cooks] When is it Plagiarism and When is it a Redaction?

[Kate Wood]

On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:23 AM, Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
<snip>
> Here is the modern version of a recipe:
>
> 8 cups of any combination of spinach, cabbage, beet greens, onion,
>   leeks, parsley, etc., chopped
> 1 stick (1/4 lb.) of butter
> salt to taste
> 1 cup diced bread or unseasoned croutons
>
> Cover greens with water; add butter and bring to a boil; add salt. Reduce
> heat & cook until vegetables are tender; drain. Place bread or croutons in
> serving bowl and cover with cooked greens.
>
> Here is what someone has called their redaction of the recipe, above:
>
> 8 cups of any combination of spinach, cabbage, beet greens, onions,
>   leeks, parsley, etc., chopped
> 4 Tablespoons olive oil (you can use 1 stick (1/4 lb.) unsalted butter
> Salt to taste (use sea salt)
>
> Cover greens with water; add butter or oil and bring to a boil; add salt.
>  Reduce heat and cook until vegetables are tender; drain. (Author’s
> redaction)
>
> Would the second person be said have plagiarized the first recipe?  Or are
> the few changes enough to make the recipe "their own"?
>
> Alys K.

I would not consider this a redaction, it's a modification of a modern
recipe. To me, the essence of a recipe redaction is taking a recipe
that is uncertain due to lack of measurements and time, changes in
ingredients and so on, researching it, and then testing it until you
get something edible out of the original recipe - changing butter to
olive oil and leaving off croutons is simply changing a modern recipe.
On the other hand, it's not plagiarism either - it's just changing a
modern recipe to something a little bit different. We do that all the
time.

Kate