Copyright, or wrong, and popcorn

Poached fish and potatoes with caviar sauce

Food Diary (March 26, 2012)

Breakfast: Rolled oats with raisins, coconut, sunflower seeds, almonds and flax seeds

Lunch: Poached fish and potatoes with caviar sauce

Dinner: Pizza, sandwich

Baking/sweets: Sour cream hokey pokey brownie

Copyright, or wrong?

Recently I posted a recipe for a cake. I got the recipe from a public website (Guardian) and clearly attributed source. The Guardian in turn got the recipe from a British baker (I will not mention his name here otherwise this post will show up on search engines). I changed the recipe substantially, and also changed the wording of the method. Last week I received a note from the baker’s business manager asking me to remove the recipe. I justified my actions but he kept insisting. I ignored his requests. I then got a polite email from Harper Collins, the publisher, requesting that I remove the recipe. I wrote the following email and haven’t heard back since:

Thank you for your email.

I don't have a copy of [name of recipe book]. I got the recipe from the Guardian website and as you saw on my blog I have clearly mentioned the source.

I made some modifications to the recipe. Instead of using 50ml yogurt as the recipe suggests I used 100 ml milk. And instead of 175 ml sunflower oil I used 125 ml neutral oil. I also excluded rye or wholemeal flour from the recipe. These changes affected the texture and flavour of the cake. Because of the modifications I cannot simply refer to the Guardian site. It only makes sense that I write out the recipe in full. The recipe is already publicly available, it has been published on a public website, not a book or journal with limited distribution. It would be a completely different story if I took a recipe from his book and wrote the recipe on my blog.

Before making this recipe I was not aware of [name of baker], now I am. You will note that many readers left positive comments on my other site (http://three-cookies.blogspot.se/2012/03/butterscotch-banana-cake.html). I guess not all of them are familiar with [name of baker] and after being exposed to this wonderful recipe they may consider buying his book. I publicised publicly available information and this could result in an increase in his book sales, perhaps. This can only be good news since there is no harm done.

You will see that I always acknowledge source. There are bloggers that don't do that and I am sure recipes from his book have been put on blogs. I think it makes more sense for you to focus your energy on such bloggers instead of me.

However if you feel that I am infringing some law, please let me know what I should do since I have modified the recipe. If I was to remove the recipe and refer to the Guardian source what should I write. Can you please spell it out specifically.

I hope you take a practical perspective to this issue.

Copyright is quite a tricky issue. For example Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin created the tarte tatin but I see many recipes on the internet that don’t attribute the source to Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. Many chefs have tons of unattributed recipes. The baker I am referring to above has a baklava recipe but I don’t think he learnt to make baklava from his mother or grandmother.

I read this on the U.S. Copyright Office website:

Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. Nor does it protect other mere listings of ingredients such as those found in formulas, compounds, or prescriptions. 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.

Only original works of authorship are protected by copyright. “Original” means that an author produced a work by his or her own intellectual effort instead of copying it from an existing work.

In my situation the business manager found my post by doing an internet search. If I didn’t mention the source, the post would not have come up in the search. Since I changed the recipe I could claim it to be mine but I preferred to mention where I got the recipe from. It seems attributing source can get you into trouble (or give you headache at least) since you can be identified through search engines. On the other hand if you don’t attribute source it will be harder for ‘business managers’ to find your recipe, If they do somehow find it, you could get into trouble, but only if they manage to prove that you took copyrighted recipe, and this is hard. It’s a dilemma. Are we being encouraged or discouraged from attributing source? A lot of blogs that I visit clearly attribute source. I don’t think cook book authors attribute their source as much as bloggers do. I only own one cook book so I don’t know for sure.


Don’t consider what I have written above as advise from me, its just my thoughts, I am not an intellectual property lawyer.

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: Technicolor Kitchen

Tangerine-poppy seed chiffon cake

Today’s Favourite Blog

Source: Science Daily

Do you like popcorn? Here’s the good news: popcorn contains more of the healthful antioxidant substances called "polyphenols" than fruits and vegetables. Polyphenols are more concentrated in popcorn since it averages only about 4 percent water. On the other hand polyphenols are diluted in vegetables since they contain up to 90 percent water.

The hulls of the popcorn has the highest concentration of polyphenols and fiber.

Popcorn is the only snack that is 100 percent unprocessed whole grain. All other grains are processed and diluted with other ingredients. Although cereals are called "whole grain," this simply means that over 51 percent of the weight of the product is whole grain. One serving of popcorn will provide more than 70 percent of the daily intake of whole grain. The average person only gets about half a serving of whole grains a day, and popcorn could fill that gap in a very pleasant way. However the way people prepare and serve popcorn can quickly put a dent in its healthful image.

Air-popped popcorn has the lowest number of calories. About 43 percent of microwave popcorn is fat, compared to 28 percent if you pop the corn in oil yourself."