Copyright Laws For Recipes

How many of you...while reading my blog and researching my Menu Board have wondered about the copyright laws concerning recipes? As many of you know (or at least should know) not a single recipe from the Menu Board Files, the School Lunch files or even the CyberSpecialties recipes are mine. Yep, you read that right, they are NOT mine. So I'm sure your next question, or maybe even accusation is: "am I stealing recipes???". Believe me, I have been questioned multiple times by my family members and friends, but suprisingly enough not a single blog follower, cutsomer, or blog investigator.

I have done TONS of research and have enlisted the advice of many family members and friends, including a friend of mine who is an attorney, and also a friend who is a proffesional chef and creates recipes herself. I am not stealing recipes. Recipes cannot be copyrighted. Again, RECIPES CANNOT BE COPYRIGHTED. This is directly from the goverment's website:

"Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. Nor does it protect other mere listings of ingredients such as those found in formulas, compounds, or prescriptions. Copyright protection may, however, extend to substantial literary expression—a description, explanation, or illustration, for example—that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook.

Only original works of authorship are protected by copyright. “Original” means that an author produced a work by his or her own intellectual effort instead of copying it from an existing work."

I have learned, however, that recipes from COOKBOOKS are protected, the book itself is copyrighted, therefore making the recipes inside copyrighted. I have not taken any recipes from cookbooks, I have taken them from 100's of websites all over the internet. With all the 1200 recipes that I have gathered (and I'm sure many more to come) not a single recipe was copyrighted. I have not even received a single complaint from any of the people who's recipes I have used in the Menu Board. (Although, I don't think I have even been lucky enough to have them find my blog yet.)

So now I am sure you all have one final question...why do I charge for the recipes? If they are not MY recipes, and I found all of the recipes for FREE, why am I charging YOU for the recipes? Plain and simple, I charge for my TIME. I charge you less than $0.02 per recipe! I charge you for the time it took me to find all 1200 recipes, for the time it took me to put them all into the same format, and the time I take each day to email out those recipes personally to each of you who purchases the recipes.

For those of you who didn't know, you can get those recipes for FREE! Yep, all you have to do is take the time and find them for yourself. I have listed the title to every recipe I have on my blog. In the Original 100 Menu Board Recipes, I have even provided the recipes for you to copy and paste yourself for FREE! The CyberSpecialties Recipes, I provided the title of the recipe and what websites I found the recipes at. The School Lunch Recipes, I have provided the titles, and all you simply need to do is take the time to google the title yourself and find the recipes.

I am not trying to take credit for these recipes, nor am I trying to steal recipes from anyone. I am simply trying to save people time. I'm trying to save people stress. Also, I am trying to save people money by helping them to better plan their meals so they can better plan their grocery lists, so they can better plan their budgets and hopefully save money.

Oh, and one final note before I end this post. Did you know that I don't even charge for the recipes when you purchase a Menu Board Package? Yep, that's right, I only charge for materials and my time to put the package together and ship it to you, or to cut everything out, assemble it and ship it to you. I am not trying to jip anyone out of money. My husband and many of my family members believe I am still WAY undercharging for the product that I sell. Like I said, I am not trying to jip anyone out of money, I'm just trying to help as best I can.

Thank you so much to those of you who have stayed loyal blog followers and facebook fans. Even though I still notice each day and week that I lose followers and fans, I have found that I quickly get new ones each day in return to more than make up for the losses. You all have kept me going in keeping this blog going. Maybe one day it will be more than just a blog, who knows? Again, thank you so much for your time, consideration, concerns, compliments, and support! I truly appreciate all of you!