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How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

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Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#81

Another factor that wasn't mentioned: Plagiarism. They often use Serious Eats recipes without any sort of attribution. Edit: Some context: https://mic.com/articles/163958/the-secret-ingredient-to-buz...

Are were sure Serious Eats didn't "steal" them from someone else?

Asking if Kenji stole recipes is like asking if Modernist Cuisine stole recipes. You'd have to be unfamiliar with either to ask.

Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#82
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi I work for BuzzFeed engineering, but this is just me talking, not my company. The guy that started Tasty uses an empirical technique he devised in-house to come up with recipes people love. Wish I could say more than that. But I believe the "recipe space" he explores can come up with recipes that can at times look like previously published recipes. There are only so many combinations of ingredients that will click…

> I guarantee you he's not directly ripping anyone off. You can understand why people might be less inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt, given that in the past Buzzfeed has extensively plagiarized: https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/editors-note-an-apology-to... https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/buzzfee... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/buzzfeed-vi... https://en.wikipedia…

Your citations quite literally mentions two people who wrote for BuzzFeed as far back as 2008, not even for Tasty.

Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#84
post #10

Another factor that wasn't mentioned: Plagiarism. They often use Serious Eats recipes without any sort of attribution. Edit: Some context: https://mic.com/articles/163958/the-secret-ingredient-to-buz...

Recipes are not copyrightable, and I'd argue that it's actually beneficial to all of us to exchange recipes freely and allow for commercial reuse. Food is an important and quantifiable part of our lives, and improving it is a collective effort. As I support scientific papers "theft" by Scihub, in the same way I support Buzzfeed propagating good food.

Providing proper attribution does not in any way prevent you from exchanging recipes freely.

Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#85

Another factor that wasn't mentioned: Plagiarism. They often use Serious Eats recipes without any sort of attribution. Edit: Some context: https://mic.com/articles/163958/the-secret-ingredient-to-buz...

Hi I work for BuzzFeed engineering, but this is just me talking, not my company. The guy that started Tasty uses an empirical technique he devised in-house to come up with recipes people love. Wish I could say more than that. But I believe the "recipe space" he explores can come up with recipes that can at times look like previously published recipes. There are only so many combinations of ingredients that will click…

Hi Nick,

I get the impulse to defend the company you work for. It's commendable. But if you're embarrassed to see your employer be accused of plagiarism, it would be a lot more effective for you to pressure people internally to start providing proper attribution than to write comments like this. Internal pressure can often accomplish things that external pressure can't.

Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#86
post #18
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

search for recipes 3 times a day and never even saw that site before. seems like a paid puff piece.

They are not really a recipe site you find via your usual search engine use to cook something. They just show up in your IG / FB feed all the time. From my experience people just "like" them because they look nice but never try to recreate them as the sped-up video format isn't great for that.

That's why they now have their new Tasty mobile app. The app gives you a full recipe in addition to the video (and even hyperlinks each step in the recipe to the point in the video that shows it).

Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#88
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct, they are the equivalent of food designers, at photo shoots. It's meant to look good on film, and nothing else. I wouldn't be surprised if the end result was not even real food on Buzzfeed. Using Elmers glue for milk on cereal, etc.

BuzzFeed-er here, in the NY office, where Tasty is produced: The leftovers from every shoot are eaten by employees, and they go fast.

Former IT worker at a newspaper here: Journalists will eat anything free, fast. A bag of flour with a sign saying "free food!" would probably go in a few minutes.

Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi I work for BuzzFeed engineering, but this is just me talking, not my company. The guy that started Tasty uses an empirical technique he devised in-house to come up with recipes people love. Wish I could say more than that. But I believe the "recipe space" he explores can come up with recipes that can at times look like previously published recipes. There are only so many combinations of ingredients that will click…

It must be a truly incredible formula to consistently produce the same results as when serious eats spends multiple iterations researching and developing a recipe and documenting the process.

Serious Eats just demos techniques from popular molecular gastronomy books. (They do at least mention this when they do it).

Re: How BuzzFeed’s Tasty Conquered Online Food

#90
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recipes are. But the ingredient lists are not. The description are copyrightable as any other written work.

IANAL but I believe you are wrong. Source : “[The] recipes’ directions for preparing the assorted dishes fall squarely within the class of subject matter specifically excluded from copyright protection by 17 U.S.C. § 102(b).” From : http://www.pddoc.com/copyright/publications_v_meredith.htm

The parent is correct and you are wrong, but they are being downvoted anyway which I expect to to happen to me as well.

“Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients….. Copyright protection may, however, extend to substantial literary expression—a description, explanation, or illustration, for example—that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook.”[0]

Clearly a cooking show or in my opinion a video showing the preparation of a dish in context and with commentary is protectable.

But all of the opinion on the internet matters about as much as wind striking the face of a mountain compared to an actual litigation.

[0] https://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html

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