I was thinking of collecting interesting recipes from other websites and then making an e-book out of them that I would give out for free. If I use the recipe and say from where I got it in the e-book, would this be legal? What I also want to know is, does the author of the recipe have rights over the recipe? Many people post very similar recipes online so I am assuming that if I rewrote the instructions of each recipe in my own words I would be OK?
There is a long thread on this topic. The short answer is this: The list of ingredients part of the recipie is fair game, as are basic mixing/cooking instructions. (like, bake at 400) What you can't copy is any original text, photos, images, which may accompany a recipe. Any special information, stories, details that are not a mere list of ingredients or basic instruction should not be copied. Read this for more info: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1492117