It’s nuanced. From your source (and consistent with the copyright laws in my country, the U.S.):
Copyright does not protect information about the ingredients or cooking methods.
The functionality of a recipe isn’t copyrightable. The layout and the precise diction used, the explanations given (including editorial choices about where to put those explanations in the recipe) might be copyrighted.
So maybe the appropriate way to be safe is to do what some software companies do with their “clean room implementations,” and define the ingredients and steps in a robust way, and ask someone who hasn’t seen the original recipe rewrite those steps in their own words.
Of course, two can play at that game. A PR push, plus a re-listing of literally every recipe in the bestseller cookbook, using the exact same clean room technique, could get that whole cookbook published on the internet for free, with no compensation to this plagiarist or her publisher.
It’s nuanced. From your source (and consistent with the copyright laws in my country, the U.S.):
The functionality of a recipe isn’t copyrightable. The layout and the precise diction used, the explanations given (including editorial choices about where to put those explanations in the recipe) might be copyrighted.
So maybe the appropriate way to be safe is to do what some software companies do with their “clean room implementations,” and define the ingredients and steps in a robust way, and ask someone who hasn’t seen the original recipe rewrite those steps in their own words.
Of course, two can play at that game. A PR push, plus a re-listing of literally every recipe in the bestseller cookbook, using the exact same clean room technique, could get that whole cookbook published on the internet for free, with no compensation to this plagiarist or her publisher.