Recipe Copying Online: Interesting Findings
Kitchen Gadgets has an interesting post on how rampant recipe copying is on the internet. I've seen this personally myself, because so much of what I do involves searching for recipe content: often times you'll find the exact same recipe on a lot of sites, but often without the original source.
Now, granted, a LOT of that copying was from blogs set up just to steal click-traffic from other sites when you are searching, a bogus and annoying trend. But still, even without this "stolen" content, recipe copying is widespread.
One "problem" is that recipe sharing is a common behavior, and has been for years.
The other problem is that recipes are very hard to copyright. I've done a lot of research into recipe copyright, and except for entire collections (cookbooks) and recipes with directions that are far beyond the normal "whip cream for 3 minutes" copyright rarely if ever can be defended.
An interesting read for anyone who is wondering about this kind of thing. Some of the things I do is out of respect for the recipe sources. In theory, the one step web import plug-ins MacGourmet has could drain content from the recipe sites without you having to open a web browser. Instead I make it so that when you visit the sites, you can make a clipping from what you are viewing. I also try to make sure that any recipes posted here or that are ever distributed retain the original source, and are distributed with permission.
Read the entire post: Pirates in the kitchen: Recipe copying 'rampant' online.
Content tracking company Attributor recently conducted a study to get an idea of how frequently online recipes are copied and reposted to other sites. What it found might concern some recipe publishers.
Attributor collected all the original recipes that appear on Epicurious.com, Allrecipes.com and RachaelRay.com. The software then checked those recipes against what was available elsewhere on the Web, looking for what they call matches--or instances in which two recipes are similar enough to be possibly copyright infringing...
Based on the results, Attributor found that copying recipes online is "rampant," said Rich Pearson, senior marketing director for the company. Attributor found just over 10,000 copies of recipes that originated on the three sites. In more than 60 percent of those cases, the reposted recipes weren't attributed to their original sources.
Now, granted, a LOT of that copying was from blogs set up just to steal click-traffic from other sites when you are searching, a bogus and annoying trend. But still, even without this "stolen" content, recipe copying is widespread.
One "problem" is that recipe sharing is a common behavior, and has been for years.
...recipe sharing isn't exactly a new phenomenon. Dig around in just about any kitchen and you're sure to find a box full of recipes that have been copied from cookbooks and cooking magazines. Sharing recipes has been part of the culture of cooking for decades, if not centuries.
The other problem is that recipes are very hard to copyright. I've done a lot of research into recipe copyright, and except for entire collections (cookbooks) and recipes with directions that are far beyond the normal "whip cream for 3 minutes" copyright rarely if ever can be defended.
According to the U.S. Copyright Office, a list of ingredients isn't protected by copyright law, but the instructions and any other "substantial literary expression" that go with it may be. But does directing a reader to whip egg whites at speed 4 on his stand mixer constitute "substantial literary expression"? Possibly. But it wouldn't be the easiest copyright to enforce.
An interesting read for anyone who is wondering about this kind of thing. Some of the things I do is out of respect for the recipe sources. In theory, the one step web import plug-ins MacGourmet has could drain content from the recipe sites without you having to open a web browser. Instead I make it so that when you visit the sites, you can make a clipping from what you are viewing. I also try to make sure that any recipes posted here or that are ever distributed retain the original source, and are distributed with permission.
Read the entire post: Pirates in the kitchen: Recipe copying 'rampant' online.
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posted by Michael on 6:48 PM
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5 Comments:
That's a great post and I applaud your respect for the recipe sources. Ever since I have collected recipes, I have always tried to maintain the source for that same reason.
I've noticed the same thing over the years. It's especially blatant for things like ethnic recipes from lesser-known cuisines, when there aren't many original recipes online. While there may be thousands of different spaghetti carbonara recipes (so a Google search won't find many with the identical ingredients and directions), there are only one or two different online versions of some Czech, Hungarian, Peruvian... dishes (so the dozens of sites that copy the same recipe are very noticeable).
One thing that MacGourmet could do to help cut down on accidental loss of attribution is have the clipping functionality automatically save and include the URL from which a recipe was clipped. I often find myself accumulating dozens (or more) clippings before I find the time to import them all, by which time I have no idea where I found the recipe originally. If somebody wants to steal a recipe or fraudulently present it as their own, this won't make a difference, but it would be helpful for generally honest users who simply forgot where the recipe came from.
How do you copyright ideas that many hundreds of people might have simultaneously, or without even knowing each other? I have thought I "invented" scads of recipes that became our family's favorites, only to discover later on that others are making the same dish the same way, or that it was actually even published somewhere before I thought of it. Sometimes I'm sure people really DO come up with a recipe on their own that is already in some book or other publication, unknown to them...
Even Cook's Illustrated as much as admits they base their recipes on the works of others. A lot of the "hows and whys" in their magazine start with "we tested many existing recipes for this" or something similar, which means "we started with other people's work and modified it."
For the two 10/16 comments: you're both right, in that almost nobody comes up with a recipe completely from scratch. I don't think the complaint here -- by either the linked story or the MacGourmet post -- has anything to do with people (or cooking magazines) who adapt existing recipes while making their own.
The big concern here is with web sites that steal another recipe word-for-word (in many cases, typos and all) and portray it as their own without any attribution. I don't know much about copyright law, so I can't say whether this is illegal or not. I can say that this strikes me as unethical, and that it looks an awful lot like plagiarism (where the student or journalist submits somebody else's paper, article, research, etc. as their own without attribution). The stakes may not be as high, since somebody's recipe web site probably won't get them a course grade or an academic degree, and probably won't affect their salary. But the underlying problem is similar, as is the solution: cite your sources! Especially if you're taking another recipe verbatim, indicate where you got it from; and even if you've modified it, it would be good to list the original sources ("adapted from...").
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