Is Copyright Protection only for those who can afford the legal fees? - Duke City Fix

 Is Copyright Protection only for those who can afford the legal fees? - Duke City Fix

"Now I want the recipe.... Similar to Duke in a way... what to do when your copyright is violated.???... I hope that she doesn't come after me as I reprinted the entire article.... "HSM

Is Copyright Protection only for those who can afford the legal fees?

 

Last month, I picked up a copy of New Mexico WOMAN magazine, and discovered my recipe for Cheeseburger Soup on page 32. They printed it without my permission, and credited it to their columnist, Beth Donahue.

I found it under this headline, "Recipes- New Mexico WOMAN’s staff and writers are spilling their secrets—their holiday secrets that is, and if you’re looking for a dish to impress your friends or family, maybe one of these recipes will make you the prized host."

In case you’ve never seen it before, New Mexico WOMAN one of those "free" magazines you can pick up in the racks outside of Wal-Mart.

Fortunately, I still had a copy of the email I sent to Donahue when she requested the recipe. It never occurred to me that she would try to claim it as her own creation.

The Cheeseburger Soup recipe printed in New Mexico WOMAN is virtually identical to my email.

To make matters worse, I planned to submit my Cheeseburger Soup in a series of recipe contests. Now I can’t do that because once a recipe is published, it’s ineligible as a contest entry.

Since recipes, like other forms of intellectual property, are protected by copyright, I write a letter to New Mexico WOMAN Publisher Jill Duval explaining what has happened. I ask her to contact me ASAP so we can resolve the situation (you can see the actual letter in my last blog entry).

I wait 10 days, and there’s no response from Duval. I start calling the New Mexico WOMAN business office leaving messages, and after a couple of days, she returns my call.

I’m a former advertising and publishing executive, so I have a good idea what’s going to happen. Since I can prove the recipe is my original creation, she probably will apologize about the error, offer to reprint it crediting me as the actual author, and suggest a token sum in the form of compensation.

Except that’s not what she offers to do.

She offers to do nothing. She’s dismissive about the whole thing since "it’s just a recipe".

Duval says she will not apologize in writing for printing my recipe, because they did nothing wrong since they believed it was Donahue’s recipe when it appeared in the December issue.

Duval maintains they will not print a correction naming me as the actual author, because New Mexico WOMAN magazine doesn’t reprint material they have already published.

Naturally, she also refuses to discuss compensating me for my loss.

Obviously, this is all about money. Duval doesn’t want to issue a correction because she’ll have to pay me for my creative work.

I think she believes there’s nothing I can do about it, unless I get an attorney. She also figures that no lawyer will want to take the case because "it’s just a recipe".

What do you think about Duval’s response? Are we all equal under the law, or is copyright protection only for those who can afford the legal fees?

Is Copyright Protection only for those who can afford the legal fees? - Duke City Fix