...one more thing: copyright

Follow the fascinating recipe copyright story in the comments of this post at Lambs' Ears and Honey. Then read Amanda's recent follow up post on recipe ownership and copyright infringement. Mandatory reading for all food bloggers (even the ones in stasis).

The rights of a copyright owner in a recipe are limited. The copyright owner cannot prevent people

from making the dish, or from writing their own descriptions of how to make it. However, the

copyright owner does have the right to control the use of the written recipe in particular ways,

including:

• reproduction (for example by photocopying, copying by hand, scanning, copying a digital file, or

printing out a digital file);

• communication (by emailing, uploading online, faxing or broadcasting it); and

• translation into another language.

Copyright does NOT protect:

• ideas (such as the idea of using blue cheese to make ice-cream);

• information (such as the list of ingredients and quantities used in chocolate chilli mud cake); or

• styles, methods or techniques (such as a method of preparing chicken and casserole).

Therefore, if you watched someone preparing a dish they had created and then wrote down in your

own words the ingredients and method, you would not have infringed copyright even if they had not

granted permission.

From The Australian Copyright Council Recipes: Legal Protection

Read Johanna's discussion on copyright at Green Gourmet Giraffe for more links and comments on the subject.