# The web is public domain? Thanks for the info, Cooks Source magazine! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 4, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487 "2010-11-04T17:56:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/41 "2010-11-04T21:42:46Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Is Monica still pursuing this? I really hope so. Even if she’s not, Paula Deen and everyone else with a legal department that the magazine ripped off will be. Cooks Source isn’t going to get away with “Teehee, my bad!” ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/42 "2010-11-04T21:47:05Z")
Paula Deen, Food Network, Disney… I think there are going to be plenty of people pursuing it. This is entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/43 "2010-11-04T21:48:29Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Trade secrets are protected exclusively under state law. Most states have enacted some version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. I didn’t want to get into the details of the law. As I said in the post, you can be sued for stealing or violating a contract involving a trade secret, but knowing or using the information in the trade secret is not illegal. So I can produce an exact replica of Coke without violating any law. If the formula was patented, it would be a violation. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/44 "2010-11-04T21:48:47Z")
I have never seen so much activity so quickly going on a facebook page. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/45 "2010-11-04T21:49:30Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Wow. > > How does this woman still have a job? I have to think that someone hacked into the account to post this. Because otherwise, seriously? SERIOUSLY? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/46 "2010-11-04T21:59:29Z")
I think her original email makes it pretty clear how tone-deaf she is. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/47 "2010-11-04T22:02:49Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I highly doubt you’ll find anyone on this forum who legitimately claims that it’s okay to download someone else’s music, claim it as your own, and sell it to other people. Possibly. But given the tortured reasoning found in threads like [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=521603) and [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=494159) and [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=282908), it sounds as if the editor was thinking pretty much along the same lines as some SDMB posters, but with her own enhancements to the “stealing copyrighted material is not theft” arguments. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/48 "2010-11-04T22:11:34Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I didn’t want to get into the details of the law. As I said in the post, you can be sued for stealing or violating a contract involving a trade secret, but knowing or using the information in the trade secret is not illegal. So I can produce an exact replica of Coke without violating any law. If the formula was patented, it would be a violation. If you are aware of the law that’s one thing. However stating that trade scripts are not directly protected by the law is not a useful summary of the situation. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Wow. > > How does this woman still have a job? My first guess is that she’s self employed in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/49 "2010-11-04T22:23:18Z")
Here’s some more on the extent of the shenanigans. Not only were they copying descriptions verbatim, they even replicated some layout elements and accompanied the pieces with purloined images! [The Cooks Source Scandal: How a Magazine Profits on Theft](http://www.edrants.com/the-cooks-source-scandal-how-a-magazine-profits-on-theft/) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/50 "2010-11-04T22:23:45Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Well, shit, people here argue that it’s OK to illegally download music… I’m interested in seeing how they spin this one. 😃 (He sez before reading the rest of the thread…) I don’t think it’s really the same situation. Monica Gaudino posted that article on her website free for anyone to read and use. She wasn’t charging people to look at it or forbidding them from using her recipes. What Cook Source did was copy something being offered for free and sell it for a profit. That isn’t much like copying music that is either for sale or just [legally unavailable](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5139522) and passing out copies for free. Two different phenomena. And the fact that Monica Gaudino wasn’t forbidding others from using her recipes or putting out a crippled version guts one of the most persuasive justifications for illegal copying. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/51 "2010-11-04T22:25:50Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Possibly. But given the tortured reasoning found in threads like [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=521603) and [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=494159) and [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=282908), it sounds as if the editor was thinking pretty much along the same lines as some SDMB posters, but with her own enhancements to the “stealing copyrighted material is not theft” arguments. I agree that stealing copywritten material is theft. I’m not sure that I possess a song I didn’t buy or a movie I didn’t purchase. But there is, in my mind, an ethical difference between possessing copywritten material, redistributing copywritten material without permission of the owner, and doing the last with a profit motive. And frankly, in my mind, the theft of the copywritten material is a lesser matter than the patronizing and bitchy tone of the response. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/52 "2010-11-04T22:30:37Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > And frankly, in my mind, the theft of the copywritten material is a lesser matter than the patronizing and bitchy tone of the response. And Monica Gaudino isn’t a giant industry with a reputation for greedy, obnoxious behavior either. If we’d been hearing for years news stories about the ruthless Monica Gaudino Cooking Cartel forcing high restaurant prices and suing teenagers for hundreds of thousands of dollars for using Monica Gaudino recipes, she’d be getting a lot less sympathy I’d bet. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/53 "2010-11-05T00:51:12Z")
I didn’t see it linked upthread, so here’s one list of the stolen articles discovered so far: [spreadsheets.google.com](https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmTaIPHPnkSedGFhbHo1d1FIR2oxNWJLaDZLeXhEVEE&hl=en#) I suspect that entire issues had no original content. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/54 "2010-11-05T01:08:12Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > IIRC, recipes aren’t covered by copyright law. > > That doesn’t make the mag’s response here any less dickish, though. The article in question was a research article on food that involved medieval recipes\* that nobody has any copyright on. However, the entire article, which was more than just some recipes, is most certainly under copyright. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/55 "2010-11-05T01:12:43Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > The article in question was a research article on food that involved medieval recipes\* that nobody has any copyright on. > > However, the entire article, which was more than just some recipes, is most certainly under copyright. I should point out that a lot of the work in ‘reprinting’ these medieval recipes actual can be considered copyright material because you are doing work to translate (or among the historical cooking: ‘redacting’) the recipe into modern terms. There are a lot of considerations here on every level (eggs in the Middle Ages, for example, were tiny and so more had to be used, just for starters). Redacting these recipes is a lot of work, and you cannot just grab them and reprint them without consideration to the author. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/56 "2010-11-05T01:24:25Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > It wasn’t posted on their site, it was posted on a site the author apparently owns. This was theft, pure and simple. No, you don’t understand! Having been “an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine” she knows about copyright laws!!1111! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/57 "2010-11-05T01:36:14Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > The tread on a Michelin XGV, for example. One of my favorites is Harley-Davidson, which trademarked the distinctive sound of its motorcycle engines. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/58 "2010-11-05T01:37:36Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > No, you don’t understand! Having been “an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine” she knows about copyright laws!!1111! And you can bet the legal departments at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine are going through their archives right now. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/59 "2010-11-05T01:47:28Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Well she has repsonded on Facebook: > > _Reprinted without persmission_ The consensus I’m seeing on other sites is that that “apology” was faked. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487/60 "2010-11-05T01:56:40Z")
When I looked earlier at the magazine’s site, not FB, there was contact information on it. ph#, email, and mailing address. For some reason those are all missing now. And IIRC, there were four selections on the menu bar. I’ll have to check the cache at work tomorrow to see what’s missing. [Cooks Source site](http://cookssource.com/index.html) ETA: Paula Deen, Food Network, Disney… Pretty sure that wasn’t the trifecta she was looking for… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-web-is-public-domain-thanks-for-the-info-cooks-source-magazine/559487.md?page=4)