Introduction

RecipeGullet is designed to allow eGullet Society members to share recipes with one another. It is not, however, a forum for posting copyrighted recipes that are the intellectual property of others. This page is an attempt to clarify the rules and define the RecipeGullet copyright policy.

Recipes and Copyright Law

A list of quantities of ingredients is not copyrightable. What is copyrightable is an author's original description of a dish or the process of making that dish. For example, you cannot copyright the idea of making a drink from 4 oz of grapefruit juice and 8 oz of sparkling water. You can, however, copyright a description of how refreshing this combination is on a hot summer afternoon. You can also copyright a detailed description of you favorite way to mix the ingredients together, and why you do it that way.

What Members Can and Cannot Do on RecipeGullet

If you are like most eGullet Society Members, you like to play around with recipes when you make them. Perhaps you read three or four recipes for the same dish and then construct your own using ideas from each. Posting the results of such an experiment is clearly within bounds, and is encouraged.

Suppose, however, that you make a recipe with exactly the ingredients that appear in a copyrighted recipe belonging to someone else. If you post this ingredient list, along with your own description of how you made the final dish from the ingredients, then you technically have not violated copyright law. However, we prefer that you not make a habit of entering recipes in this way.

Whenever a recipe you enter is based on or inspired by someone else's recipe, whether copyrighted or not, we hope that you will acknowledge the source or your inspiration in the recipe's introduction. Something simple like, "This is based on Mark Bittman's recipe, but I use more peanut butter than he does, and I also add jalapenos, which I think makes all the difference in the world."

In some cases, certain "fair-use" provisions in the copyright code may make it technically legal to quote a small number of recipes from a larger work, for example in the context of a review of a cookbook. However, this should not be done in RecipeGullet. If it comes to our attention that this is happening, the recipes in question will be deleted from the archive. Although we do not anticipate this happening, any member who repeatedly violates this policy may be stripped of their rights to participate in RecipeGullet and eG Forums, and may be subject to membership termination.

Use of Posted Recipes

As is the case for posts on the eG Forums, you as the creator of your recipes retain the rights to them, with the exception that The eGullet Society or assignees will always retain the right to publish, reproduce, and otherwise use your recipes once they are posted.

If we come to the conclusion that a recipe posted to RecipeGullet is in violation of copyright law, we will delete it and warn the submitter. Repeated violations of copyright law may result in disciplinary action against a member.