[Sca-cooks] NPR Segment on Copyright infringement

[David Friedman]

>If I translate a recipe from old French, my translation is protected
>by copyright.  I've added enough creativity.
>
>If you then translate the same recipe, and come up with the identical
>text, your translation is also protected by copyright.
>
>If I sue you for violating my copyright, and if it is just a single
>recipe, and if expert testimony says that there aren't many ways of
>translating that recipe, and if there is no evidence that you copied
>from my translation, then I am almost certainly going to lose that
>lawsuit.

It's worth noting that if you translate a recipe from old French into 
modern French and I then translate your translation from modern 
French into English, my translation is covered by your copyright and 
I can't legally distribute it without permission from you. It's also 
covered by my copyright. Strictly speaking, the copyright doesn't 
give me the right to make copies of something, it gives me the right 
to forbid other people from doing so--as this example demonstrates.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com