Philosophy
The Food Network has dropped dessert chef Anne Thornton when it was discovered that recipes in her cookbook were, but for small alterations, the same as those in cookbooks by others. The word "plagiarism" is being used for the case. It is, at first glance, an odd fit.
Plagiarism generally involves unattributed use of others' ideas or words in a work where it is assumed to be the author's. Do we have that expectation in a cookbook? When I read the little paragraph before a recipe, there is always something like "this has been in my family for generations and I grew up loving it..." or "with a couple minor changes, this is a dish I ate at a friend's party..." Recipes we make, in almost all cases, are not devised out of thin air, but are the result of having had something we liked, figuring out how to make it and writing it down. When I buy someone's cookbook, I don't think that these were thought up by the author, but that the author is vouching for their quality.
At the same time, if one is a writer of cookbooks, the recipes are your life's blood. If someone steals your recipes, they steal your content. But is it the individual recipes or the range covered in your book that is important?
Can a cookbook recipe be plagiarized?
- Modern Mencken
Tomorrow is Mencken day at the Enoch Pratt Library, honoring one of the great intellects of Baltimore. Who would be the modern day version of H.L. Mencken? Is there a writer who is smart, ascerbic, conservative, and wry? P.J. O'Rourke? ...
- Can You Really Own A Position?
I've been thinking about the use of the verb to own with respect to an intellectual view. When a student is being wishy-washy about a proposition he or she is arguing for and clearly believes, I'll tell the student to "own the position." ...
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Are historians scientists? They frame hypotheses about the causes and effects of real events and use empirical evidence to support their accounts. But they don't do not look for regularities to make into laws; to the contrary, they account...
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Philosophy
Are Recipes Intellectual Property?
The Food Network has dropped dessert chef Anne Thornton when it was discovered that recipes in her cookbook were, but for small alterations, the same as those in cookbooks by others. The word "plagiarism" is being used for the case. It is, at first glance, an odd fit.
Plagiarism generally involves unattributed use of others' ideas or words in a work where it is assumed to be the author's. Do we have that expectation in a cookbook? When I read the little paragraph before a recipe, there is always something like "this has been in my family for generations and I grew up loving it..." or "with a couple minor changes, this is a dish I ate at a friend's party..." Recipes we make, in almost all cases, are not devised out of thin air, but are the result of having had something we liked, figuring out how to make it and writing it down. When I buy someone's cookbook, I don't think that these were thought up by the author, but that the author is vouching for their quality.
At the same time, if one is a writer of cookbooks, the recipes are your life's blood. If someone steals your recipes, they steal your content. But is it the individual recipes or the range covered in your book that is important?
Can a cookbook recipe be plagiarized?
- Modern Mencken
Tomorrow is Mencken day at the Enoch Pratt Library, honoring one of the great intellects of Baltimore. Who would be the modern day version of H.L. Mencken? Is there a writer who is smart, ascerbic, conservative, and wry? P.J. O'Rourke? ...
- Can You Really Own A Position?
I've been thinking about the use of the verb to own with respect to an intellectual view. When a student is being wishy-washy about a proposition he or she is arguing for and clearly believes, I'll tell the student to "own the position." ...
- Group E-mail Vs. Spam
Is there a difference between sending an e-mail to a group of people and spam? Is the difference based on the number of people contacted? If so, where is the dividing line between contacting a bunch of folks and sending spam? Or is it...
- Historians, Archaeologists, And Scientists
Are historians scientists? They frame hypotheses about the causes and effects of real events and use empirical evidence to support their accounts. But they don't do not look for regularities to make into laws; to the contrary, they account...
- Indexical Obsolescence?
Tightening up the index for Einstein's Jewish Science. Last item before it goes to the printers. It will be released in mid-April in both hardback and e-book formats. If we are moving towards an all e-book world in the next decade...