Cooking website & recipe copyrights

Hello Guys,

I am planning to create a cooking website with recipes and where users can post their recipes as well. Now I can't really control what recipe they submit and I can't check all submitted recipes whether they were copied from other websites or not.

What is the best approach to make sure everything is legal ?

Anyone knows any terms and condition I can make them accept bevor they publish the recipe or any other ideas ?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

No one able to help ?

 

You might want to check with one of the experts (mjewel, dave z, brownt dude etc) but I'm not sure that recipes can actually be copyrighted. Aren't they just 'lists'??

I could be wrong! Here's a link :- can recipes be copyrighted

 

Yeah, it is an interesting question. I would definitely want to consult with an attorney before going forward, because I'm guessing there won't be a quick and easy answer.

 

When I've read your post I've done a little research for it and I found out that, it says copyright law does not protect recipes. Anyway, you can always search for attorneys consultation online, they are all over.

 

There is a long thread on this topic. The short answer is this:

The list of ingredients part of the recipe 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

 

Hi !

Thanks for the info. I've came accross the same sort of information on the internet but thought I might checkup with some experts.

Thanks again.

 

Only original works of authorship are protected by copyright.

 

If users are submitting recipes, you are not responsible for screening them thanks to the DMCA. Read up on the DMCA procedures. You will have to register a takedown agent for your website and have a way for people to contact you if their recipes appear on your site so that you can take them down. As long as you respond to all requests, you won't be responsible for infringements done by your users.

 

It is a lot more about the actual wordage, and a lot less about the ingredients used.