ADMIN: Recipe Sharing

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Jamie R

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Aug 28, 2006, 4:14:34 PM8/28/06

On Sunday, I was removed from 4 listowners' lists (including one co-moderator who gleefully removed me from 80 lists I'd been on from their inception) because one of the listowners believed that I was poaching recipes from her list to post to my new GoogleGroups lists.

I've researched this today, and could only find one common recipe posted to our lists in August...and I posted it to my lists first (6 hours before the other person).

Sigh....

So I thought it might be a good idea to clarify what I think about recipe sharing.

In general, my concept is that recipes should be freely shared, with attribution if possible....but shared freely none the less.

Specifically, all articles and recipes I post from newspapers get full attribution (paper name, date published, etc.).

Individually posted recipes...I post ones that I know the original source of as well as unsourced recipes. If I know the original source, I share it. But I don't go out of my way to hunt down the original source of a recipe. When I share recipes from other lists, if the original poster appears to be the recipe originator, I definitely give credit (along the lines of "shared by Toni, Recipe-List-Name, August 2005")

But if a specifically unsourced recipe from another list appears as though it is NOT original to the poster (i.e., it looks like a recipe pulled from Meal-Master but with much of the MM formatting removed or a recipe with very specifically formatted preparation times or nutritionals suggesting it is from another online source)...I post the recipe as unsourced.

The only recipes I share from other lists are ones that I've received with attachments OR are from a multi-recipe e-mail (I like to split out the individual recipes). When I post themes to the lists, they are either from RecipeLink (which quite often inspires my themes) or recipes separated from attachments (or each other). Personally, I don't like attachments clogging my computer, so my go-to place for theme recipes is my folder of recipes with attachments.

I never join other listowners' lists to poach recipes; I join lists because I like to get recipes. I don't just post any recipe from lists to my lists; I post mostly those that I want to separate from their attachments!

I think it rather odd that listowners would automatically think that a recipe posted to two different lists...is poached one from the other. There are so many recipe sources on-line...how can an owner be sure a recipe was poached from HER list? It could have been taken from another list or a website or a cookbook!

Personally, I am not a subscriber to the theory that recipes can be "stolen" (as I've been accused of). There is no such thing as recipe copyright (recipe COLLECTION copyright, but not individual recipes). But, ethically we should share ORIGINAL sources, if known.

You can read in more detail about my thoughts on recipes and copyright and recipe sharing in general at:

http://www.grassrootsrecipes.com/copyright.html

[Interestingly, the co-mod that dumped me from her lists regularly posts unsourced recipes...I found two of the recipes she recently posted without source at KraftFoods & Epicurious! I believe if you, as a listowner, post unsourced recipes...you shouldn't get too angry at others that do the same!]

I know from experience that original sources can be hard to track down. Just lately, I've had cause to look up some recipes on-line to fill in missing information in the original recipes. Some recipes are literally on 100s of sites; how do we know what the actual original source is? And other recipes have really made the rounds on the recipe lists. While I was trying to condense my crockpot collection to a manageable size, I found that some recipes had been posted to recipe lists in excess of 150 times between 1998 and 2006. If I share that recipe with my crockpot lists, do I need to list those 150 groups as a part of the source? That's absurd!

Again, ultimately, it would be best to post attributions for all recipes shared, but that just isn't going to happen in the real world. And, honestly, at the core, I simply believe that recipes are to be shared. Period. No one should get hung up about ANYTHING to do with them. It's just recipes!

I would ask listmembers in the future, if you have a problem with my posting of particular recipes...that you come to me privately to discuss it. In the case above, I actually did nothing wrong, but will have to pay for it forever (at least one of the lists I will truly miss).

And if you think I am too lax in my standards, you may want to find other lists better suited to you.

Again, I view recipe sharing as something that should be done generously and joyously. I sincerely believe that when we share recipes, we can impact each others lives in a very positive way.