The following has always been part of the Posting Guidelines for the RecipeCircus:

• Do not post copyrighted material without the permission of the owner. Also, be careful using trademarked names particularly for copycat recipes. Many companies employ legal staff that do nothing but search the web and threaten people with law suits.

• Please only post your own recipes. Do not copy anyone else's recipes without their permission. Instead, we suggest that you just create a Free Form recipe that points to the link address of that recipe.
  

Original recipes are protected by our copyright and trademark rules. That is our official policy on the RecipeCircus.

Most of the time people do not object to having one of their recipes posted in the RC as long as they are asked and credit is given to the author in the Source of Recipe field. However, they are perfectly within their rights to say no. This is why there is a field that allows you to put in the web address of the recipe with a description.

Strangely, sometimes people complain about someone copying their recipes even when they were not the original author of the recipes. It's like saying, "I copied that recipe first, so you're not allowed to!"

Some of the recipe names themsleves are protected by Trademark and Copyright rules. If you called a recipe "Kentucky Fried Chicken" you would be violating trademark rules. This is a fine line that is walked by the TSR all the time.

Now there are a few quirks in the copyright laws concerning recipes that everyone should be aware of. Ingredients in a recipe are not protected by copyright laws only the instructions. This means that if someone wanted to put your own version of the instructions for a recipe on their website it is legal to do.

In this particular instance, Top Secret Recipes has asked RecipeCircus members to remove their proprietary recipes. This request must be honored.

Finally, a few words to recipes authors or copyright holders.

• No one is making profit from posting recipes on the RecipeCircus. Even the advertising revenue we receive does not cover our expenses for the site.
  
  
• The intention of the RecipeCircus is that prople create their own personal recipe collections for their own use in much the same way that when you see a recipe in the newspaper you copy it down and even share it with your friends.
  
  
• Please keep in mind that members of Mimi's Cyber Kitchen and the RecipeCircus represent a cross-section of regular consumers. Though you may be within your rights to send threatening letters to people, you should be aware that this can make your material unpopular. This can give you negative Word of mouth publicity.
  

JB your friendly ringmaster