Copyright issues around recipes...

[CoolDot]

Hello,

I am in the process of creating a website that should contain recipes (meals for people, who want to loose weight). My website will be a commercial one, so it is important that the recipes I use on the site are in no way in violation of any copyrights.


Recipes are plentiful of course. There are a lot of books, magazines and websites with recipes, but of course just using their recipes is out of the question (at least without the author's permission).

My questions:

If I rewrite the recipes in my own words, trying to get as far away as possible from the original text while still cooking the same dish ) , would that still be considered a copyright violation?

What actually is copyrighted? The title, the ingredients list, the text describing the preparation procedure, or even the "idea" for the dish itself?

I assume that the actual cooking-procedure of a meal is not protected. Is that correct? Therefore if I describe the procedure in my own words would I be allowed to do that then?

What about the title and ingredient list of the dish? Not much possibility for variation there...

I greatly appreciate any help you could give me. If you know of any websites that deal with that topic (or websites that offer copyright-free recipes or recipes that I can license for not too much money), then please point me to those. Thanks a lot!

Thank you very much for your help and advice in the matter!

Kind regards
CoolDot

 

[namedropper]

If I rewrite the recipes in my own words, trying to get as far away as possible from the original text while still cooking the same dish ) , would that still be considered a copyright violation?

Shouldn't be, no.

Cooking is a process. Processes cannot be copyrighted. They'd need a patent to prevent you from making (or telling anyone else how to make) the same dish.

What actually is copyrighted? The title, the ingredients list, the text describing the preparation procedure, or even the "idea" for the dish itself?

The text. Photo too, if there is one. The layout of the page. Things like that.

Occasionally the title will be trademarked, or trademarks will be used within the ingredient list, and you want to avoid them unless it is impossible.

 

[CoolDot]

Namedropper,
thank you for your response! That makes me VERY hopeful for my website. And it also goes along with my gut-feeling about this matter. (But my gut-feeling has been known to be wrong in the past ) ).

Anybody else, who might want to give me an opinion?

Thank you very much for your help!

CoolDot

 

[jberryhill]

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.pdf