Being a member of an online writing community I came across a post the other day where the poster wanted to know how to claim copyright for recipes. The simple response could be, write your own. But recipes in their total form are not copyrightable, only the method or instruction provided is. Then there is also the issue of recipes out of copyright, where their methods are free to reproduce as you please.
Firstly, derivative works are anything that you adapt. If you adapt a recipe it is a derivative work and deserves the same recognition as any other type of writing. If there is enough of the original there, making it obvious of where the work came from, it has not departed the original enough and therefore it is not protected by copyright.
The only type of derivative work that can be claimed under a new copyright is one that is quite clearly an original creation that does not resemble the original work in method or execution of the subject.
You can not simply adapt a work and claim it as yours. Nor can you simply use copyrighted work, quote the source, and be free of violating copyright law.
Secondly, don’t try to reinvent the wheel…if you want to use material no longer under copyright simply quote your source, and don’t try to claim it as your own. It is morally wrong, and someone is sure to notice that the work originally came from another source.
Thirdly, if you are wanting to compile a group of recipes for resale, regardless of if they are in copyright, if you are not a chief who can apply writing and culinary skills to methods think twice, unless you are doing so for review, education purposes, or debate. If you want to use recipes by a well known chef, ask permission.
1. A list of ingredients is not copyrighted.
2. The method or instruction for preparation is copyrighted.
3. NOW A tricky twist on the rules.
Recipes that are traditional and known by many from a location – for example – in Australia it would be impossible to copyright the recipe for Damper, especially the basic one using only flour, salt, and water, or for that matter chocolate crackles (Which by the way Kellogs™ did try to do once, unsuccessfully.)
It is impossible to copyright them because millions of Australians have been passed on the recipes for generations and know the recipes from memory and will write them almost word for word …but if you have used a previous recipe from someone else and not written the method or instruction from your memory you should attribute the original source, and at the very least note that it is a Traditional Recipe from (and the region or country)
4. Any recipe that you have adapted, regardless of how much you think you have added to the recipe, the original recipe writer that you have adapted the recipe from should be attributed to being the original source.
eg.
Damper 1
Ingredients
4 cups of flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
30g butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
Method or Instructions
Sift flour, baking power, and salt and mix in butter.
Mix a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Mix in milk and water and knead until firm. Shape into a flattened ball.
Place on a large greased and flour tray and bake for approximately 25 minutes, then reduce heat to 180c and bake for another 15 -20 minutes or until a tap on the crust causes a hollow sound, then turn onto wire cooling tray.
Serve cut or broken into thick chunks and serve with golden syrup, lashings of butter, or both.
*****
In the above recipe the ingredients are not copyrighted but the method of how I just wrote it is despite it being a traditional recipe from Australia but only to a degree.
The reason for this is, I have ingredients listed in portions others may not, and in turn my method has been adapted to suit the quantity and the heat and cooking method that I have used to make the damper. Having said that, many other Australians will write that recipe in a very similar fashion if they are making that quantity. Overall, even though my method is copyrighted, there is a great chance many other Australians have an almost identical formula in the method for making that quantity of bread.
No one would dare claim the Damper recipe as their own, AND anyone not familiar with it, should not claim they made the recipe alone. Anyone writing a traditional or slightly adapted recipe, should note the original source if they themselves did not traditionally grow up and know that recipe by heritage. Being a traditional, well slightly adapted traditional Australian recipe, depending on who is writing it, should note it in one of a few ways.
An Australian who knows the recipe by heart and needs no reference to any document or source to make the damper. – Traditional Australian Damper
An Australian or anyone else who does not know the recipe -
Traditional Australian Recipe – adapted from/ or original source Sharon Robards
Damper 2
1 cup of flour
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup water
Method or Instruction
Mix all into a firm ball, flatten and place under the ashes of the fire.
****
The above recipe can not be copyrighted…that is how hundreds of people would know and write how to make it. Having said that, if you come across a recipe like that and you never new that, it is not your recipe to use freely without attribution…that is common sense.
Points to take note of.
1. The list of ingredients you are free to reprint and use as you wish.
2. The method or instruction must be written completely from your memory because of knowledge of how to make the recipe due to it being your recipe, or passed on from generation – not because you looked at the recipe then closed the book and wrote from memory. Apart from the fact the recipe would probably not work, you know it is not yours.
3. Even if you are convinced you made enough of an adaption to a recipe to call it your own, don’t be afraid to pass on the original source of the recipe.
4. Even if you are using recipes that are out of copyright – it is a curtsey to credit the original author of that recipe. Someone with the knowledge, will only point it out to you.
6. Attempting to rephrase words is still, and will be picked up, as a copyright breach if it remains in copyright, and just a lie, if it is out of copyright.
The main point to remember is that every writer, regardless of wether their works are copyrighted deserve to be attributed their own writing, regardless of the year it was written. If you are using recipes out of copyright you should quote the source even if there is no legal obligation to do so.
If you are still uncertain check with your countries Copyright laws.
