I need some advice. You see, I have this whole wheat pizza crust that I love to make, because it’s not too difficult and it’s actually 100% whole wheat, which is difficult to find. The recipe is found in this cookbook, which I highly recommend if you are interested in 100% whole wheat baking. This recipe is not found anywhere else online as far as I can tell.
I see lots of bloggers out there sharing recipes, and I’ve given many of their recipes a try. Some of them are original, some of them are from other internet sites, and some of them are from cookbooks.
Here is my dilemma. What is right? What is technically legal, and beyond that, what is fair? I’ve seen recipe blogging handled a few different ways:
- The blogger is using a recipe that is online, and they don’t include the recipe in their post, they just link to the original recipe that they found elsewhere. I have done this before.
- The blogger is using a recipe from a cookbook or online source, but reposts it saying it was “adapted”.
- The blogger writes out a recipe making no mention of the original source.
- The blogger is The Pioneer Woman and they seem to have this amazing ability to come up with unbelievable dishes on the fly.
So many questions:
1. How should I handle recipes that I find on sites like AllRecipes.com?
2. How should I handle recipes that are found in a cookbook I own?
3. How should I handle recipes that are the original creation of another blogger?
4. When does someone actually “own” a recipe?
5. What about the following: A blogger takes something out of a cookbook, reposts the recipe in entirety on their own blog, and I like it and make it and want to share it with you. Since they tehcnically ripped off the cookbook, do I have to link back to them in my post as well? Or do I just link to the cookbook on Amazon? Or should I not even be re-posting what the other person posted in the first place, even if it’s a really delicious dish that I know you will all love?
6. When can I post a full recipe on my blog and have it be both a legal and ethical posting?
7. How many changes do I need to make to a recipe to make it my own? Or is it that if I can write out a recipe from memory than I can call it mine?
I’ve been puzzling over this for a long time, and Google searches haven’t really helped me figure out where I should stand. I know that I could write the cookbook writer to get permission to repost, but what if they never write back? Then can the recipe never be shared? Or if I can write it out from memory I can call it my own? I’m so confused!!!
June 11th, 2011 on 8:35 am
You’re confused because you are asking a lot of really complicated intellectual property law questions! I don’t think there are simple or straightforward answers to these questions. That said, you should always credit the original source if you know what it is, whether that be a blog post or a cookbook. I think sharing one recipe out of a cookbook, as long as you are honest about where it comes from and as long as you don’t plagiarize the text from the cookbook is fair game. And of course linking to where to buy the cookbook is important. Just know that this comment does NOT constitute legal advice.
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June 11th, 2011 on 8:42 am
As someone who writes a lot of recipes, here is my feedback:
A recipe is only yours to completely republish if it is original. The old rule of thumb is that if you change two ingredients, it’s now ‘yours’ but I’m not sure how I feel about that because you can make simple swaps that don’t really alter a recipe – like spinach for broccoli and add in chili powder. It’s not really a new recipe.
If you have a recipe that inspired you to make a few small changes but its still essentially the same recipe, I think it’s okay to publish your version of the recipe AND credit the original recipe source. i.e. “inspired by…”
in the case of your pizza dough, i would not republish it. the right thing to do would be to say, “I made this amazing pizza, the recipe is in {hyperlink to book}”
as a blogger, the MOST ANNOYING THING is when people republish my recipes on their blogs and then say “source: healthy tipping point.” the good form thing to do is to say, “i made this recipe from healthy tipping point [hyperlink]” not republish the recipe in its entirety, so people are actually driven to the original site.
You can never post someone else’s recipe without any significant changs on your blog and have it be ethical.
Make sense?
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June 11th, 2011 on 9:05 am
So, I write a cooking blog (www.barefootandinthekitchen.blogspot.com)and when I started, the whole point was that sometimes I would be at my boyfriend’s apartment and want to make something I had the recipe for at my apartment, or I would be at his parents house and want to contribute to dinner with an old standby recipe I knew would be good, but I didn’t have it. Plus I had a few recipes I’d found on the back of a Keebler box and wanted to save, but didn’t really have a good place for. So I started typing up recipes, but I always say where they are from.
I’m actually in the middle of a project right now wherein I try making one recipe out of every cookbook I own (one a week, I have 40+ cookbooks). I had some questions about whether it was okay to re-post the recipe. For the most part, I think if I’m just posting one recipe from the cookbook, along with a link to the Amazon site so the readers can buy it, and appropriate credit, it’s alright. I realized I was posting a lot of recipes from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and the New Best Recipe Cookbook, so I’ve stopped posting any additional recipes and told people to go buy their own copies of the books. (By my understanding of copyright law, this constitutes fair use, and if any cookbook author has a problem with my “ripping off” their recipes, I would certainly take them down.)
I don’t make any money off of my blog though, so legally I feel comfortable doing it the way I’m doing it. Since you will be advertising, I don’t know. As far as Allrecipes recipes and stuff, I would just link to them. If it’s another blogger, definitely link to them – it’s unfair to steal their site traffic.
The easiest thing to do is probably contact the writer of the cookbook. They’re probably busy, but they might appreciate the extra publicity – since you write a blog with a huge readership and people genuinely interested in healthy living, they might view it as free advertising and agree to let you post the recipe.
I think ownership comes from either standing in the kitchen, saying, “what will I make tonight?” and then coming up with something – even if you look at a cookbook for inspiration on what goes well together. This morning, I made oatmeal pancakes from a cookbook recipe, and I added cranberries and substituted greek yogurt for eggs, but that doesn’t make that recipe mine.
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June 11th, 2011 on 9:14 am
I’ve been considering this same thing, but on a smaller scale. I have a great recipe other mama’s will love that I wanted to write about because I love it so much. But, its from a cookbook I purchased. Do I write about it and at the end say, “well if you think you want to try it you better go purchase ___!” I’m sort of thinking, its just one recipe, and if anything the author may be appreciative because others may then go and buy the book. I can’t decide!
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June 11th, 2011 on 10:04 am
I’ve struggled with this also. On one hand, my husband says if you change one thing it’s mine (but I think he’s just being sweet and encouraging.) On the other hand, I honestly don’t know that there are many original ideas of food combination. Some people are naturally able to whip things up on the fly (looking at PW) but who is to say they are original to her-someone pre-Google may have had the same concept and methods and it’s just not written down.
The Internet is still the bit of the wild west in terms of intellectual property and such. When I post recipes, I link to the original source and state my changes. I think it’s fair to give credit where I found it, and explain my challenges/changes in the post.
Not a total solution to your question, but perhaps another point of view!
PS you are looking SO SO SO fabulous!! Keep up the good work!
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Katy Reply:
June 11th, 2011 at 7:32 pm
I have this thought as well – how many recipes are truly “original”? For certain food items, there are only so many combinations and even for those people that seem to come up with things on their own, how much is truly on their own and not influenced by the way Grandma did it. Does Grandma essentially own that recipe then?
As for a recipe from a cookbook – perhaps I’m not as ethical as I thought – but sharing one recipe (with credit due of course) is not a fragrant infraction to me. Copy/pasting their entire cookbook? Of course, yes. If you desire to share more than one from a book, I’d contact the author/publisher for that.
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June 11th, 2011 on 10:22 am
I’ve wondered about this too – I always post the link if I found it online, and I always (or at least I think I do) post the book link on Amazon if I got it out of a cookbook.
I don’t have as much of an issue posting a recipe from allrecipes/marthastewart.com/etc because I feel that it’s free online anyways – so I’m not stealing any money, and am actually sending more traffic their way. I do feel more uncomfortable posting from cookbooks, since then people aren’t buying the book. So I try to only post one or two from a cookbook, and I link to amazon, and I only do it for cookbooks I can rave about.
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June 11th, 2011 on 10:25 am
I’m fairly sure that fair use covers sharing at least one recipe from a printed cookbook… let’s see what the cookbooks on my desk say:
Le Cordon Bleu Quick and Easy — “Brief passages (not to exceed 1,000 words) may be quoted for reviews.”
Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook 15th Edition — “No part of this publication may be reproduced [...all the different ways they can think of], except as permitted under Section 107 and 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act [followed by information on asking permission for reproduction].”
I would check the copyrights page of the cookbook in question, to see if their restrictions are more like LCB or BHG, quoted above. You might check some more professional cooking blogs (like Smitten Kitchen) to see what it is they do… largely her recipes are all “adapted from”, I think.
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Ellie Reply:
June 11th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
It never occurred to me to check the copyright pages! That’s a really good point. Thanks for the tip.
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June 11th, 2011 on 10:37 am
Oh MAN this is a good question. I love to cook, and since I am pretty horrible at it, I sometimes like to write up my experiences on my blog. Never would I include a recipe without linking to the original blog and specific recipe post… Or without linking to the book. But I guess that doesn’t entirely negate the issue of posting the recipe myself? Argh. What a confusing issue!
I will be checking back to see what others say about this. Glad you brought it up!
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June 11th, 2011 on 10:43 am
Having just posted a recipe yesterday, the comments on this are pretty interesting to me.
The food blogging world seems to share a lot of recipes around (and I like that because it gives me a chance to find other food blogs to follow). And if I see a lot of recipes from specific cookbooks, those are ones I’m likely to seek out myself.
Also, I was looking at 101 Cookbooks a few weeks ago and when her cookbook came out, she linked to all the people who had made recipes from her cookbook and posted about them and she seemed thrilled. I’m guessing she feels like it’s probably good advertising for her book if well respected food bloggers are giving her cookbook and its recipes the thumbs up.
I would have to change something to feel like it was okay for me to post it (like the recipe yesterday was a combination of two recipes (one for the pie, one for the pie crust, and I rewrote most of the directions to handle making them both at the same time and I changed the ingredients up a bit (cooking the onion rather than using it raw, the amount of tomatoes, etc)).
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June 11th, 2011 on 11:00 am
Maybe someone already said this but my understanding is this:
No one can copywrite combinations of ingredients. The only part that IS copywrite protected is the written instructions on how you make the recipe.
I often go the “adapted” route.
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Brigid of Vegging out in T-Town Reply:
June 13th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Yep, this is the law as I understand it, too. I almost never make a recipe 100% as is, so I will often say mine is adapted from whatever source. Even if I did, I always rewrite the instructions in my own way, which avoids the copyright problem. All that said, if it feels wrong to you, don’t do it. If you don’t see a problem with sharing a recipe, then go for it.
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June 11th, 2011 on 11:10 am
US Copyright do not cover lists of ingredients, but if you write the instruction, those *may* be copyrighted. (http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html)
I did read that if you list the ingredients, but then write your own instructions (not just changing a few words, but writing what you did in your own words) and cite the source, that it’s okay to write about it – and I saw this information in several locations, so it seems like the popular consensus.
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June 11th, 2011 on 11:46 am
Hey friend, long time no talk! Others have given good feedback, and I also strongly urge you to look at this: http://foodblogalliance.com/2009/04/recipe-attribution.php
If you haven’t heard of David, he’s a preeminent food writer/cookbook author/blogger/ice cream expert!, and I would hands down take his word as fact on this. He also provides some other resources at the end of his post. Hope this helps!
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June 11th, 2011 on 12:18 pm
Over citing is better than under citing, IMO.
I probably wouldn’t re-publish a recipe that was in a cookbook and not online. But things that are on the internet are a bit of “fair game” as far as re-publishing goes. I mean, I think you have to realize if you post an original recipe online then it will get copied. So I would say link back to the original source but it’s okay to republish something from allrecipes. If it’s a blogger though it might just be more polite to only link to them so that they get more traffic.
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June 11th, 2011 on 12:20 pm
I have a cooking blog, and I have worked in publishing, so I understand giving the proper people credit. In general, if it’s a recipe I got from a family member and they don’t give me the original source, I credit that person. If I get it from a website (Food Network, Kraft Foods, etc.) or another blog, I tell about the recipe and then link back to the original. Especially if it’s a blog, I feel that person definitely deserves credit. For sites such as Food Network, I will sometimes type the entire recipe, but link back to the recipe in the title and for a print version.
I personally will never put an entire recipe on my site that I got from a published cookbook … I don’t feel right about that. However, if I find an identical recipe online somewhere, I do feel ok about linking back to that site, as well as a link to the cookbook (on Amazon) where I originally got the recipe.
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June 11th, 2011 on 12:23 pm
If I find the recipe on the internet, I will link back to the site and usually not repost the recipe. I only repost the recipe if I make significant changes. Then I’ll post the original recipe with my changes in another color or different font.
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June 11th, 2011 on 12:33 pm
I would just link back to the original source or just give a brief statement of credit. I never thought about how scanning a recipe from a book you bought is probably unethical — and I have done it before. Oops!
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June 11th, 2011 on 1:50 pm
Its interesting to read everyone’s different take on this. From my perspective (which is based on academic writing), it is okay to quote a recipe from an already published source (whether that be a blog or a book) as long as you cite the original author and the page number you found it on. If I was sharing recipes, I would take this to mean a list of ingredients and/or directions. In blog land, I think this translates to linking back to the post you found the recipe on and not just the general site. I disagree with the idea that you cannot repost a recipe someone else put on their blog. If people like the recipe, they will click over to find other recipes by that author. This is how it works when people publish books–you can quote other authors in your book. If you really feel uncomfortable posting the full recipe, perhaps post the ingredients and refer to the blog for the directions or vice versa. For books, I think it is fine to post the entire recipe and reference the book. If people want more recipes, they will buy the book. (This is of course assuming you aren’t going to post every single recipe in a book. This brings up an interesting question then of what percentage of the book do you feel comfortable sharing online).
If it is not a direct quote, but a paraphrase you just have to cite the author/original text and leave out the page numbers. I would follow this rule if I used a recipe for inspiration or if I combined two or three recipes to make one recipe. In this case, I think it would be okay to just link just to the general site/book.
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June 11th, 2011 on 2:27 pm
I know Deb from http://www.smittenkitchen.com has discussed this on her site before. She is putting out a cookbook and has likely mulled the issue over like you are many times over. I belive she said similar to another commenter above that the instructions are the copywrighted material, not the list of ingredients. So changing ingredients and writing out your medhods in your own way would make a recipe ‘your own’ as far as I understand.
As a reader, I would prefer to see the recipe and your photos and instructions (your insight about the recipe, really) rather than just – I made this from xyz.com go there and check out the recipe.
Wouldn’t giving credit where credit is due allow you to post any recipe regardless of the source?
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June 11th, 2011 on 2:33 pm
Jenna – Have you used the King Arthur Flour whole grain baking book? I have seen that one recommended too and would love to know if either Laurel’s or King Arthur would be a better addition to my cookbook shelf. I believe King Athur also includes recipes for whole grain cakes and other treats, not just bread, and I don’t believe all of the KA recipes are 100% whole grain.
Any other readers have experience with the KA whole grain baking book?
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Jenna Reply:
June 22nd, 2011 at 6:26 pm
I loved that book! I like the Laurel’s Kitchen one better because it is all 100% whole wheat, and the Arthur one using refined flours at times, but if you want to make desserts the KA one is the way to go. The Laurel one is healthier, but almost no desserts.
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June 11th, 2011 on 2:54 pm
If you got it online, link back to the blog from which you found it. I would not type the article in it’s entirety, just the link, that way the blog gets credit.
Regarding cookbooks- my library has an enormous section of cookbooks. I can only imagine how many thousands of times those cookbooks have been checked out, and how many thousands of people have read them. And then maybe half of those people made a recipe, took it to a potluck, and then half of the people there loved the cake and asked for the recipe. Yet the library bought only *one* copy. Other than my small personal tax investment in the local library, I, nor the thousands of other library patrons, did not pay for the cookbook.
Similarly, when I read a book and love it, I will pass it along to a friend. I don’t say “oh, I loved this book” and then with hold my copy and make my friend buy it.
To my mind, cookbooks especially are such a niche that as long as you accurately cite the cookbook (and perhaps link to the website promoting the cookbook, as well) you’re giving them free advertising. If someone uses the recipe and loves it, they might buy the cookbook that may otherwise have never heard of without your blog post promoting it.
I guess I just don’t see how it’s any worse for you to share a recipe on a blog than it is for my library to buy one copy of a cookbook and allow thousands of people to check it out every year.
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Tiffany Reply:
June 12th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
I like your thinking!
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Lea Reply:
June 13th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
It’s not just about the monetary value of the text you’re copying and republishing, or about free advertising, it’s about an author’s intellectual property rights. While your logic may hold on a practical level, copyright is a different story, so in some cases, just linking back or citing the book won’t do. It’s still best to check a cookbook’s copyright page, like the above poster said.
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June 11th, 2011 on 3:05 pm
This is what I do, and obviously I am by no means an expert in law:
I tend to err on the side of caution with cookbooks. I figure these authors are trying to make a living, and I respect that. Blogs where they have posted the recipe online I just credit and link up.
I think “modifying” is the toughest situation. I read somewhere that unless you are changing about 5 significant ingredients – so it doesn’t count if you threw in a dash of nutmeg, or took out a teaspoon of salt – you’re still using the original recipe. I think that can be used in a spirit of the law way more than anything.
In the past I was much, er, looser with recipes, and I do regret that. I think sometimes we don’t stop to think “who put all their time and effort into this?” it’s usually kind-hearted (you know, the photo put on Tumblr with no credit. So sad!) but I still try to be aware of it.
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June 11th, 2011 on 3:26 pm
I think you should always give credit where credit is due. If you were inspired by a recipe, link to the original source. If you followed a recipe, link to the original source. I don’t think you should ever take someone else’s work and claim it as your own OR make it so someone doesn’t seek out the original author.
It’d be like if I took all your beautiful photographs and photoshopped them, and then talked about how good I am at photoshop. It’s still your original work.
BUT…I worked as an intern for our local paper this last semester. I was responsible to update a recipe blog online. Different publishers would send the editor recipe books, and I would type out word-for-word the recipes on our blog, source the recipe, and then link to a website if I could. I don’t think anyone is going to mind if it’s getting them publicity in the long run!
I guess…in the long run, I’d play it on the safe side, and just share where you got the recipe from and not actually post it. That way you’re sharing but still giving credit and not stealing the spotlight.
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Sophia Reply:
June 11th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
A bit of a tangent, that I touched on earlier- let’s say you bought a book, and loved it. You recommended it to 3 of your friends, and they all wanted to read it.
Do you tell them all to buy the book? No, you probably just let them borrow it.
But really, how is that “fair” to the author, when it comes to compensating them for their work? They could have sold 4 books instead of one. Personally, there have been tons of times when one book has been passed around my group in this manner. And then, of course, there is the issue of the library, where literally thousands of people can read one book, for free.
I guess I don’t understand where the line is drawn between “fair” and “not fair”, in terms of compensating the author for their work. Anyone know? I guess I’m wondering why it’s ok that I can check out a cookbook that thousands of other have, or I can pass a cookbook around, or write down a recipe and give it to my friends, but it wouldn’t be ok for a blogger to write down the whole recipe.
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Sophia Reply:
June 11th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Whoops, sorry Hannah, I meant for that to be a regular comment, not a reply to yours!
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caleefille Reply:
June 12th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
As far as borrowing books, “copyright” is just in regards to duplicating already printed works…so passing it along isn’t making more copies of the book, but if you were to photocopy that book for your BFFs, that would be the infringement. I’d imagine that the logic in legislating copying vs. lending is that there are enough impatient people who in the course of waiting for a book will just buy it themselves
And you could potentially copy the book and sell the copies, thus profiting from the author’s work, not to mention that an anti-lending law would hardly be worth enforcing. So, that’s where the recipe area gets gray for me…and the point about the profit from the blog going to you and not the author of the recipe. I don’t think it would be ethical to re-post an entire chapter of a book, so similarly I don’t think it’s ethical to repost an entire recipe. You are essentially “copying” a portion of a work you don’t have the right to copy, and potentially also garnering profit from it. I agree with your last point, Sophia!
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June 11th, 2011 on 4:21 pm
Delurking to offer my advice as a librarian
. It looks like you can use recipes under fair use so long as you site your sources. The link at the US Copyright Office http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html is characteristically vague but Food Blog Alliance has done a great job of decrypting it 
. Hope this helps!
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June 11th, 2011 on 4:22 pm
http://foodblogalliance.com/2009/04/recipe-attribution.php Opps, I forgot the link, duh!
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Jenna Reply:
June 12th, 2011 at 9:10 am
This is exactly what I was hoping to find! This made me feel a lot better about things and I think I’m going to write a follow up post and make sure everyone sees this link
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June 11th, 2011 on 4:24 pm
Wow…those are tough questions – mostly because Intellectual Property is hard to define and recipes are exceptionally complicated. There’s a really good article about this, but of course I can’t find the link.
Legally there are a bunch of considerations (this is not legal advice, I’m not a lawyer) and I’m pretty sure one of them is that you can’t copyright a list, which is essentially the first part of a recipe. I’ve read varying standards for when a recipe becomes your own – between 3 – 5 substitutions and rewriting the method in your own word. But even that is grey because how many different ways can you write “cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy” or “saute the onion until soft”?
I think there are only two, maybe three recipes written out on my blog – the rest I’ve linked to or mentioned the original cookbook. I do note on my blog if I’ve made substitutions or changes and what they are.
There are very few “original” recipes out there…most food have a base recipe and the “additions” are what makes chocolate chip drop cookies differ from oatmeal drop cookies or kitchen sink cookies or ….
I guess your best bet would be to read up on IP law and fair use in your state and then go with that…
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Shannon Reply:
June 11th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
I’m still looking for the article, but here’s the US Copyright information http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html
The article basically says that in order for the method to be copyright, it has to be new and unobvious…the ethics are of course a completely different matter than the legality…
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June 11th, 2011 on 9:12 pm
Site the original source like you would with a research paper. As long as you’re giving credit where credit is due then I don’t think its a problem. People use other peoples information all the time, that’s why it’s published. If someone likes one recipe that you cited from a cook book then they’d probably be more inclined to get it. Definitely more so than if you’d never mentioned said recipe.
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June 12th, 2011 on 3:57 pm
I can see from all the answers that people gave, that there really isn’t one principle that everybody believes in concerning this issue. But it is still nice to read all the feedback. Thanks for taking the time to ask these important questions. You are not the only one that will benefit from it.
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June 12th, 2011 on 6:21 pm
I only post a recipe on my blog if it is a recipe that I came up with on my own – not through a recipe book or someone’s website.
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June 12th, 2011 on 8:55 pm
Smitten Kitchen does have a large section on this:
http://smittenkitchen.com/about/faq/#25
(Start at that question and keep going down to the end of the Recipes and Cooking section of her FAQ.)
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June 13th, 2011 on 10:25 am
I think a lot of people lean heavily on the “I changed it, it’s mine” idea and I disagree. That, to me, would be like taking one of your Jenna Cole photographs and re-cropping it, or drawing on it in Paint and calling it yours. I think if you got something from a cookbook, you should link to the book on Amazon and not show the recipe. If a website, link to the website for the recipe. That way the author is getting the hits he/she needs to sustain her business. Even if you were inspired by someone in creating a vaguely similar recipe, I’d link. When I make things from a cookbook I’ll usually list some of the ingredients, but not the amounts or processes, that way a reader will know if they are interested and then know how to get a recipe. And can I just say, thank you for caring about this!
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June 17th, 2011 on 9:12 am
Haven’t read the comments yet, but legally you may post the ingredients and quantities, but the instructions must be in your own words. You may not copy the text word for word from a book or blog. And your interpretation must be sufficiently unique, which is not hard to do at all. And as you know, you can’t use a photo without permission.
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Felicity Reply:
June 17th, 2011 at 9:16 am
Btw, I am a lawyer and while I don’t practice in IP now and am not giving you advice as your lawyer (sorry, have to say that), I did study IP extensively and work in IP for a while.
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March 16th, 2012 on 10:19 am
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