A fellow blogger has run afoul of a myopic mini-dynasty by modifying a recipe on her blog. I’m sure she would agree that when each of us reads a recipe we see things a kid doesn’t like so substitute, and make other changes. I do try to a do a new recipe as written, taste the results and make changes according to my tastes.
Food bloggers are being hampered by huge publishing firms from printing any of their recipes (denying permission and not allowing any modifications to their recipes because they are “perfect.”)
No-one was looking for the 18 year-old nut recipe I gave you yesterday but they still wouldn’t allow me to print it with appropriate credit to the sources. Don’t you think if I credit the magazine, article, author and publisher that it would help magazine sales rather than hurt them?
OK, I’m not a Michelin-starred chef (if I was one why would I be asking for a recipe) but they’d give it to me. But serious cooking bloggers are out there and are being threatened by huge corporations because we’re raising interest in their products via a mechanism that their lawyers don’t understand.
It’s too bad because cooking is a creative enterprise and if we bloggers find a new twist or change things about you’ll sue us. That’s the bad side of patent law. The good side is our side and we will make that known in due time.
It looks as if the magazine industry is going the same way as movies fighting television. The new technology (witness iPods et al) is going to win out and your ways are going to have to change to deal with it. Bloggers are here to stay, at least for the next XX years. Dee
Cooking with Dee 
I agree, Dee! What if you had just printed “a” recipe for nuts or “my favorite” recipe for nuts without even thinking about crediting the source (which I’m sure happens all the time). Would they even know it was “their” recipe? I should think they’d be flattered about the publicity and the citation (and the fact that you asked permission). Seems very ungenerous and unnecessary to deny permission.
I don’t know what is up with these companies, but they are going all about this the wrong way!!! Foodbloggers have a lot of clout in the online world!
We allow for blogs to link to our website (try to locate the recipe on
epicurious.com) but you can not post our material directly on your site.
If you would like to see about purchasing a permanent link to the recipe
please contact Scoop for reprint information. Their contact information
is as follows – T: 1-800-767-3263 / F:949-453-4696/
E:sales@scoopreprintsource.com. They will be able to assist you with
your request.
This is what a “permissions analyst” at Conde Nast sent me several weeks after I submitted a written request for the 1990 nut recipe.