On My Soapbox

Okay, I have to rant. I love blogging and am all for people sharing cool stuff that they find on the Internet. But I am not happy with people stealing somebody else’s work and implying that it is their own (this is plagiarism).

Case in point is some of my apple recipes. Now, I know that recipes are in that quasi area when it comes to copyright status. But that only pertains to the ingredients list, not the words surrounding how to put those ingredients together. I do not object to people copying and posting any of my recipes as long as they attribute the recipe to me and include a link back to the original recipe (some of which have been updated along the way).

But, how do I know the recipe is mine and not theirs? Well, in the case of my apple cake recipe, I include information on what is my favorite way to eat the cake, and have seen that suggestion word-for-word in the copies. I also had a typo (recently corrected), and that typo occurs in the unattributed copies. In the case of my apple green tomato relish recipe, the title of the original recipe (handwritten by my husband’s grandmother over 50 years ago, I have the original) never had the word “apple” in the title.

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now and return you to the Internet we love so much. But don’t get me started on the plagiarism I have found of my occupied Japan content.