Seinfeld Cookbook Controversy - Who Owns Recipes?
Saturday October 20, 2007
An interesting controversy has arisen over the new cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld (wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld). Her cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious," (HarperCollins Publishers) focuses on "hiding" healthy foods in dishes designed to appeal to children. It is an awesome idea, of course, and the book was promoted on The Oprah Winfrey Show which naturally will project it to immediate Number 1 status on booklists.
Another new cookbook, "The Sneaky Chef" by Missy Chase Lapine (Running Press), promotes the same concept and three almost identical recipes which, on the surface, appear to pre-date those of the Seinfeld book. Ms. Lapine's cookbook was rejected twice by publisher HarperCollins who subsequently published the Seinfeld cookbook. It should be noted that Ms. Lapine was a former publisher at Eating Well magazine.
Herein lies the controversy. Can recipes be copyrighted?
Without question, they can be copyrighted. However, it is quite a process, and each must be individual and proprietary. For example, consider Coca-Cola® and all those secret spices in KFC® chicken. Imagine the cost of copyrighting every single recipe in a cookbook?
In the past, unless the recipe process was extremely complicated and specifically copyrighted, only cookbook compilations were copyrighted. In other words, you could not reproduce a complete cookbook, although a certain percentage with proper attribution was considered good publicity for book sales. And so it was.
However, should basic recipes and variations be subject to more stringent copyright laws? If you post Grandma's recipe for biscuits and someone adds garlic powder and cheese, is it still hers? What if you add raisins? What if you had no idea that Grandma snagged that recipe from her neighbor and called it her own? What if you had a dream some hungry night, cooked it up, and found out it wasn't unique? Is it still yours? What if you substitute blueberries for strawberries in a recipe because you are allergic? Does that make the recipe yours and yours alone?
Should individual recipes be copyrighted?
• Post your comments here.
Further Reading:
• How to Get Junior to Eat His Veggies Turns Out to Be (Too) Common Knowledge (The New York Times)
• Pirates in the kitchen: Recipe copying 'rampant' online (CNET.com)
• Can Recipes Be Stolen? (The Washington Post)
Another new cookbook, "The Sneaky Chef" by Missy Chase Lapine (Running Press), promotes the same concept and three almost identical recipes which, on the surface, appear to pre-date those of the Seinfeld book. Ms. Lapine's cookbook was rejected twice by publisher HarperCollins who subsequently published the Seinfeld cookbook. It should be noted that Ms. Lapine was a former publisher at Eating Well magazine.
Herein lies the controversy. Can recipes be copyrighted?
Without question, they can be copyrighted. However, it is quite a process, and each must be individual and proprietary. For example, consider Coca-Cola® and all those secret spices in KFC® chicken. Imagine the cost of copyrighting every single recipe in a cookbook?
In the past, unless the recipe process was extremely complicated and specifically copyrighted, only cookbook compilations were copyrighted. In other words, you could not reproduce a complete cookbook, although a certain percentage with proper attribution was considered good publicity for book sales. And so it was.
However, should basic recipes and variations be subject to more stringent copyright laws? If you post Grandma's recipe for biscuits and someone adds garlic powder and cheese, is it still hers? What if you add raisins? What if you had no idea that Grandma snagged that recipe from her neighbor and called it her own? What if you had a dream some hungry night, cooked it up, and found out it wasn't unique? Is it still yours? What if you substitute blueberries for strawberries in a recipe because you are allergic? Does that make the recipe yours and yours alone?
Should individual recipes be copyrighted?
• Post your comments here.
Further Reading:
• How to Get Junior to Eat His Veggies Turns Out to Be (Too) Common Knowledge (The New York Times)
• Pirates in the kitchen: Recipe copying 'rampant' online (CNET.com)
• Can Recipes Be Stolen? (The Washington Post)
Comments
No comments yet. Leave a Comment