Recipe Website Owners: Adapting Recipes From Other Websites
Culinary blogs are very popular, and I have seen quite a few members within WA find a niche under the umbrella topic of 'food'. One of the questions that comes up a lot, is how should you use recipes from other blogs so that you can use them on your own website.
People are worried about copyrighting, duplicate content, and images, among other things.
Well, I've been working on a food related website and in my research today, I started to notice a pattern. While I can't say this is the answer to all of the above questions, I do think it answers a few things about what to do when you find a recipe you want to use on your blog.
Take a look at these examples
http://www.acouplecooks.com/2013/09/tomato-avocado...
http://damndelicious.net/2014/04/21/cheesecake-fac...
They take original pictures with their smartphone (I can recognize the long/fat image style), and post their new recipe to their own website. In the bottom, they link to give credit to the original recipe creator. [my suggestion is to open that link in a new window)
I hope this helps! If you know someone with a food website, pass it on!
Update: After reading the comments, I just wanted to stress three points.
1. Take your own photos! It's not OK to copy photos from other websites without permission
2. If you want to be safe, ask the recipe creator if it's OK to adapt their recipe for your blog and give them credit
3. Write a unique description! No copy/pasting
However, my own opinion is that if you make the recipe original enough, then you're safe from any problems. No one has a copyright to apple pie or chocolate peanut butter brownies.
I also found this, which mentions that the 'rule of thumb' is to change three ingredients: https://www.foodbloggerpro.com/community/viewthread/31/
Recent Comments
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Interesting observations Nathaniell!
If I was any kind of a cookin' webmaster, I'm sure they'd impact me - but my creations tend to be simple spur of the moment 'recipes', forgotten as quickly as they were created.
Thanks for the informative read -
Dennis
Quick question though, I been reading the things I have been getting
from pintrest, and a variety of other places, I am using all my own recipes but was curious if I had to give credit to the original author? If so, where would I put it? www.timelessfamilyrecipes.com Thanks alot Mary
My own opinion is that if you make the recipe original enough, then you're safe from any problems. No one has a copyright to apple pie or chocolate peanut butter brownies.
If your recipe is clearly from just one source and you just tweaked it a little, you can just link somewhere on the page of the recipe, as these guys have done. I would put it lower down the page so people don't click off your site right away!
Hi Nathaniell, an interesting topic and one that is still highly contentious. It is worthwhile noting that, in a list of copyrighted subjects, recipes aren't among them. As far as I am aware, the ingredients and directions for a recipe are a statement of fact, and therefore cannot be copyrighted.
However, anything other than that, such as a description of the recipe by the author, an original photograph or list of accompaniments such as wine or aperitifs, may be subject to copyright and should only be used with the permission of the author of the recipe.
Below are some rulings by U.S. courts where copyright infringement of recipes had been claimed:
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“The identification of ingredients necessary for the preparation of each dish is a statement of facts. and that recipes’ directions for preparing the assorted dishes fall squarely within the class of subject matter specifically excluded from copyright protection by 17 U.S.C. § 102(b).”
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So what is copyrighted? According to the U.S. Register of Copyrights:
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“Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. Copyright protection may, however, extend to substantial literary expression — a description, explanation, or illustration, for example — that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook.”
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Although the above rulings by the courts decreed that certain parts of a recipe cannot be copyrighted, it is not enshrined in law, and therefore cannot be binding.
Is there a safe way to copy recipes? Yes, there is, use the public domain! There are any amount of cook books and recipes with copyright expired, many of the recipes still in use today, and also, recipes placed in the public domain by the originator.
There is no guarantee that, when copying a recipe, it will be the original one, anybody know who the original author for the recipe for apple pie was? But If you do decide to copy a recipe, make sure you get prior permission from whoever published it, or at least give accreditation. Could save you a lot of problems in the future!
Hope this helps.
This is a great comment, Harry. I just took a copyright class a few weeks ago and this question was discussed. Our instructor said that recipe copyrights (not the ingredient list, but any other wording or presentation associated with them) are a highly debated subject where U. S. law is concerned. Here are some pertinent links with more information:
http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2013/06/can-you-copyright-a-recipe.html
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html
Copyright on a recipe from a specific cookbook will generally belong to the publisher of the cookbook, not necessarily the author. That is something to be kept in mind where sourcing permission is concerned. Consider, also, that if you are sourcing from another website or blog, you are going to have no clue where they might have appropriated the recipe from, so asking for permission first, as well as if they are aware if there is a copyright, is probably a good idea.
This is good info brian. It's why I say that people need to take their own photos, and make the recipe their own. I don't think people can own a copyright to apple pie!
I've noticed something too about food sites. I do all the cooking so I'm always looking for something new. I've visited a few dozen food sites looking for recipies that an old man can cook. This is what I've noticed. Out of those dozens I've only clicked on one that didn't have a video of the dish being made. I might be adding some recipies to one of my sites, so if I want some action I guess I'll have to clean up the kitchen, put on a chefs hat, and start cooking in front of a camera.
Gary
A very good idea. It's also courteous to let the creator of the recipe know that you are revising the recipe to post on your blog but giving credit through a link to his or her website.
I make my recipes from scratch by experience and knowing my ingredients.
What I have found through big food blogs is..."Don't steal my recipe and put on your blog, this will hurt my SEO, and I will contact your Host to bring it down."
That is the extreme, but I notice that most food blogs will go on a magazine or a youtube they love and change couple ingredients and call it they're
own.
Original recipes will always do better in the long run IMO. You are doing the right thing!
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Thanks Nathaniel for the information. It may be useful in something I do later.