General
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, do not play one on TV, nor pretend to be one on dates. Nothing here is to be, nor can be, considered legal advice. Anything I state here is derived from publicly available sources, including the U.S. Copyright Office. For a definitive reading consult a copyright attorney.
All creative works are automatically copyrighted, and the copyright is automatically assigned to the creator(s), unless that copyright has been specifically assigned in writing to another entity. In the United States this was established in a case regarding sculpture, but the courts have held it applies to all forms of creative work. This automatic copyright is recognized by all signators of the Berne Convention (nearly the entire world).
Within the United States, registration of a copyright, or even use of the © symbol or a copyright notice is not required for copyright protection. Within other Berne signators registration is not required, but some 20 countries do require a copyright notice. In the US, registration enables you to recover a statutory $150,000 per violation, while unregistered works can only recover actual damages.
The exception to the above is a "Work for Hire", where the work was created by a person or persons specifically hired to do that work, whether by hourly wages, salary or consulting fees. In such cases the copyright belongs to the entity that paid for it. For a work created outside such an arrangement, if sold, the copyright does not pass with the work unless so stated in writing by the original copyright holder.
The fact that something has been published on the Internet does not in any way relieve the requirements of copyright law. Internet publication does not in any way imply "public domain" as some have claimed. If you violate copyright you will likely receive a "cease and desist" letter, and if you ignore that you may find yourself defending a lawsuit involving monetary penalties. You aren't likely to win, and in the United States, due to work by the music and motion picture people, as well as copyright holders like Getty Images, the penalties can be rather severe.
On the Internet, you may, in addition, be viciously attacked in blogs and in other forums and publications, leaving your reputation in tatters and you shunned by all.
Recipes are a special case that has been defined by the courts and the copyright office. This recognizes the fact that all recipes are based on prior art and simple lists of things aren't copyrightable. More at Copyright.
- The list of ingredients cannot be copyrighted. Original descriptions and instructions on what to do with the ingredients that accompany the list most certainly are - unless they express something that can't be expressed any other way.
- Translation of units of measure or translation into a different language does not relieve this protection.
- Substantial or significant changes in ingredients or quantities, and original writing of descriptions, procedures or methods, make it a new recipe not subject to the copyright conditions of the recipe it is based on. It does, however, now carry it's own copyright conditions.
- All recipes on this site have been redeveloped with copious changes in ingredients, quantities, methods and descriptions - nothing is copied. Most of our recipes have a bibliography reference to the source at the bottom. We do not more directly credit them because the source may not agree with the changes we have made.
Clovegarden Copyright
At the time of this writing the www.clovegarden.com site is under development. It was originaly expected it would become a commercial site, but this is now increasingly unlikely. A wide variety of educational material is presented here that may be linked to without charge. Should the site becomes commercial, this free content will remain accessible under the same terms. Terms of usage are as stated below for Text and Images.
Commercial Usage
Many pages and materials on this site say "Linking to and non-commercial use of this page permitted". In other words, anyone may link to these page for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. Anyone may use the material for personal, non-commercial purpose. This section defines commercial usage.
- Commercial usage is by any entity that sells products, displays or publishes paid advertising or charges for access to any part of its content, facilities, products or services, whether on the Internet, at a physical facility or in any other way. This includes any site that effectively fronts for a commercial site or entity.
- Linking to pages on this site from commercial sites is permitted unless the page specifically says otherwise (at this writing none do), provided no attempt is made to disguise the source or give the impression it is part of the linking site or that the linking site and Clovegarden are in any way associated. Frames are to be avoided.
Text
- All text on this site is copyright Andrew Grygus dba Clovegarden unless specifically stated otherwise within or adjacent to the text, or which clearly belongs to some other entity. In general, there is a copyright notice at the bottom of each page.
- Text may be freely linked to from other sites provided it is properly attributed to clovegarden.com and no attempt is made to conceal its true attribution (frames, etc.).
- Text may be copied without permission only to the extent of "Fair Use" as defined by U.S. copyright laws and judicial decisions.
- For inclusion in electronic or print media beyond the "Fair Use" limits requires permission and may be subject to attribution, conditions and/or monetary costs at Clovegarden's sole discretion.
- Minor editing or translation into another language does not relieve the conditions of copyright.
Images
- All photographs, drawings and other images on the CloveGarden site are copyrighted by someone unless specifically stated as contributed to the "Public Domain" or "Copyright Expired". Specific copyrights are listed below.
- All images listed as © cg1 are licensed in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike v4.0 International. Attribution to www.clovegarden.com is no longer required, but notification of such use is appreciated. Note: Most of the images on this site are rather small. In most cases larger versions are available on request. There may, or may not, be a small charge for preparation and delivery, at our discretion. This will be implemented only for use deemed commercial.
- Any images listed as © cg2 will be licensed only by request under terms of agreement. At this time (2020) there are no such images on the site.
- Clove Garden applies reasonable effort to comply with all copyright conditions. In a very few cases photographs may be used without permission for some reason (usually difficulty contacting the source of the image) but generally will include attribution and the phrase "Permission Requested". If any are yours, please contact us to either give permission or with any objections you may have.
- In some cases we have "borrowed" product images from a commercial site without permission, as we cannot determine whether the copyright belongs to the site or to the product manufacturer. In such cases we always provide a link to the source site, presuming this advertising is sufficient reward for use of the image. Any objections will be respected.
- Please inquire about Any images without a copyright notice. If they are copyrighted by Andrew Grygus dba Clovegarden they will probably be licensed according to "cg1", or contact information for the actual copyright holder will be provided.
- An Image Copyrights page is available to define photos that are not © cg1 or cg2 and don't have copyright information with them on the page. Many of these will have been purchased from iStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto or another stock photo entity. Not all are posted there yet, but eventually will be.