Re: Cookbooks & copyright question

[clarkjc@xxxxxxx]

Many thanks for the answers below, as well as the one I 
received off-list. This is very helpful--and I learned 
something I probably should've brushed up on earlier.

Jeff

>-------------------------------------------------------------
---------
>Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 13:37:14 -0500
>To: <digital-copyright-digest-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>  <digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>From: "Harper, Georgia" <GHARPER@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: RE: digital-copyright Digest 7 Oct 2003 15:00:00 -
0000 Issue
>  265
>Message-ID: 
<7EDF69A387A18B489F7E0E397EC2E5F902B20549@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
cal>
>
>Nimmer addresses the issue of the copyrightability of 
recipes at 2.18[I] of
>his 10 volume treatise. I found a pointer to this reference 
on the Internet
>when I searched for "copyrightability of recipes." It came 
up first. Google.
>
>Nimmer says that recipes as instructions for the preparation 
of food are not
>copyrightable, though some cases have found that text that 
included recipes
>was infringed by taking text and recipes. Also, one might 
embroider on the
>recipe by including information about the historical origin 
of the recipe,
>tales about its having been served somewhere, etc. and maybe 
get copyright on
>the whole, but a basic list of ingredients is not going to 
cut it.
>
>Georgia Harper
>Univ. of Tx. System
>Office of General Counsel
>gharper@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>512/499-4462
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 12:35:37 -0400
>To: digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>From: clarkjc@xxxxxxx
>Subject: Cookbooks & copyright question
>Message-Id: <4cd08c04.cea01272.f43b600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>Thoughtful list colleagues,
>
>I received the following query from a faculty member at my
>institution. Very interesting!... but I'm not sure what an
>appropriate answer would be--if there's one other than asking
>recipe-by-recipe permission. I'm inclined not to think so...
>but don't have an argument I'm confident of at this point.
>
>Thanks in advance for your thoughts.  Jeff
>
>"A friend and I am thinking about writing a cookbook.
>Possible
>titles include _Cooking with Philosophers_ and _A
>Philosopher's Cookbook, or Discourse on the Method:  Being an
>attempt to introduce the experimental method of reasoning
>into culinary subjects_.  [...] One of
>our points is that it is quite reasonable to take a recipe
>and 'play with it,' substituting ingredients, changing
>amounts, and so forth.  Our question concerns the copyright
>status of recipes.  Could we include the basic white bread
>recipe from, for example, the Westbend Bread Machine
>Cookbook, cite the source, and use it as the basis for some
>of our possible modifications?  (It's the basis for a whole
>wheat, hazelnut, and poppy seed bread that I bake, for
>example, among other breads.)  The recipe in question is
>fewer than 400 words, it's less than 10 percent of the work
>from which it is taken, but is a recipe itself taken as a
>work?  [...]
>
>We'll have generic recipes, which shouldn't be a problem,
>but to do interesting things, one sometimes needs to begin
>with something a bit more determinate.  Can we use an
>occasional recipe drawn from a published source?"
>
>===========
>Jeff Clark
>Director
>Media Resources MSC 1701
>James Madison University
>Harrisonburg VA 22807
>clarkjc@xxxxxxx (email)
>540-568-6770 (phone)
>540-568-7037 (fax)
>

>------------------------------
>
>Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 08:48:03 +0200
>To: <digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>From: "Amalyah Keshet" <akeshet@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re:  Cookbooks & copyright question
>Message-ID: <014a01c38d68$1ef82540$136410ac@photo1>
>
>Copyright in recipes is a topic that has been discussed at 
great length and in
>great detail on the cni-copyright list.  You can access and 
search the list
>archives via www.cni.org  or
>https://mail2.cni.org/Lists/CNI-COPYRIGHT/List.html
>
>If I recall properly, the bottom line is: a straightforward 
recipe (the
>formula) is not protectable, but a more narrative 
presentation of one (Alice
>B. Toklas's recipies, for example) can be protectable as 
they are original
>expression.  Quoting one directly from a published cookbook 
seems to me to be
>a matter of risk management:  I would prefer to have 
permission, because
>proving to anyone who objects that their recipe isn't 
protected (if that is
>the case) could be a very expensive legal process.
>
> [I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.]
>
>amalyah keshet
>head of image resources & copyright management
>the israel museum, jerusalem   www.imj.org.il
>board of directors, the museum computer network   www.mcn.edu
>

===========
Jeff Clark
Director
Media Resources MSC 1701
James Madison University
Harrisonburg VA 22807
clarkjc@xxxxxxx (email)
540-568-6770 (phone)
540-568-7037 (fax)