Ever since I had the idea for this blog, I've been concerned about copyright infringement issues associated with reposting recipes online. Although I credit the authors of all of the recipes and try to provide links to where their cookbooks can be purchased, the fact of the matter remains that you can still find some of their hard work for free on my blog. So with this concern in mind, I'd like your suggestions for how to continue this blog, if it can be continued at all.
One format I've considered is to just post descriptions of the recipes (perhaps a list of ingredients only without quantities) and pictures and provide an email address for people to request more details on an individual basis. After all, recipe sharing is such an integral part of our culture, it's hard to imagine that there could really be something wrong with friends sharing a couple of recipes via email.
Another idea is to privatize this blog so that the contents are not really public per se - it's more like I'm letting you all into my kitchen to peruse my cookbooks, as friends and family normally do, but in this case my cookbooks are a little easier to get to.
And of course, a final option is to simply close the blog. I've wondered why I really wanted to start this from the get go - did I think I had free time? My advisor would certainly disagree... Just about all my friends and family are great cooks, too, who have their own wealth of wonderful recipes, and really, who doesn't own a copy of The Joy of Cooking these days, which is probably my most used source. Perhaps a better way to share my love of cooking is to do as I have been doing - keep inviting you all over to help concoct and taste the latest creations from my kitchen in person.
So if any of you have any ideas or suggestions regarding this issue, please let me know!
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Actually, Jess, you're fine as long as you stick to the list of ingredients (including the amounts). See here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html
Beyond that, yes you are posting their hard work, but you're not profiting from it and you're giving them free advertising.
Yeah, you think that last part would count for something, but from what I've been reading, authors will still ask bloggers to remove recipes that have been posted without obtaining copyright permissions. But really, I don't think there are enough people who would find this blog for that to matter.
ReplyDeleteYou're not going to get in any legal troubles, so for now I say, "better to beg forgiveness..."
ReplyDeleteI don't know Melanie, but I agree with her statement. I seriously doubt authors will be monitoring your blog, (I'd hate to lose it), but if they do, and complain, you mention the complaint on line, and remove the recipe.
ReplyDelete