Hello and welcome to another dose of my thoughts on blogging, entrepreneurship, and our industry in general. My goal with these newsletters is to help you feel less lonely in our space, and occasionally teach you something about self-publishing cookbooks.

these recipe apps are like a game of whack-a-mole

I was recently made aware of yet another “recipe app” that’s scraping our recipes, pulling them into their app, and profiting off of our IP.

I posted about it in the Transparency in Blogging Facebook group and my friends in there did not disappoint with the comments on that LinkedIn post 😂

After the Recipeasly drama of 2021, it’s hard to believe we’re still dealing with this.

In my mind, there are two big reasons why these apps suck:

1. They’re siphoning traffic away from our websites (financial loss)
2. They’re profiting off of our IP (theft)

To be honest, I’m more hung up on the second one right now. The enneagram 1 in me can’t stomach the blatant injustice of this.

is this legal?

On that note, I asked our favorite robot friend (Chat GPT) if these sites were legal. Here’s the TLDR version of its response:

• The legality of apps like ReciMe and Crouton that scrape recipes from food bloggers and republish them hinges on copyright law and the specific use of the content.
• While ingredients lists are generally not protected by copyright, the original text of a recipe (instructions, descriptions) can be copyrighted, and republishing this without permission could be illegal.
• Violating a blog's terms of service (which often prohibit scraping) could also lead to legal consequences.
• Profiting from scraped content without permission increases the legal risks, potentially leading to copyright infringement claims or other legal actions.

I don’t have Terms of Service on my blog. I have a Privacy Policy, but not ToS. Do you? I asked the robot to generate one for me:

Prohibition on Scraping and Automated Access

You are expressly prohibited from using any automated systems, software, or other technological means, including but not limited to bots, web crawlers, spiders, or scrapers, to access, extract, collect, copy, or reproduce any content, data, or information from this website without our prior written consent.

Unauthorized Use of Content

All content on this website, including but not limited to recipes, text, photographs, and other materials, is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Any unauthorized use, including the scraping or automated collection of content for any purpose, including commercial use, redistribution, or republishing, is strictly prohibited and may result in legal action.

Consequences of Violation

We reserve the right to take any and all necessary actions, including but not limited to issuing DMCA takedown notices, pursuing legal remedies, and seeking damages, against any party found to be in violation of this clause. Your access to the website may also be terminated or restricted if we suspect any unauthorized use or scraping activities.

You DO have my permission to “scrape” that ToS for your own site 😉 However, it hasn't been reviewed by a lawyer, so you may want to do that.

do ad networks care?

Despite the questionable legality of apps like ReciMe and Crouton, I don’t think there’s a lot we can do to push back as individuals. I am wondering if there’s something we can do as a group. I sent Mediavine a message to get their thoughts on that idea. Honestly, they weren't very helpful:

"I hear what you're saying and understand how this is representative of a larger issue within the blogging community. It's important to us that continue support creators, especially as the internet continues to change.

I would encourage you to share your thoughts and story with us by visiting our Creator-First Future landing page.

Supporting a Creator-First Future means bringing your stories and insights into the ongoing conversations we’re having with the Google team, reminding them that there are humans behind the numbers. We will keep working on more ways we can work together to ensure that independent creators can continue to thrive.

I hope this helps a bit more and we're open to any feedback you have!"

a girl's girl (aka a recipe app that's nice to food bloggers)

There is clearly a divide between food blogs and consumers, something we’ve known about for awhile. They don’t like all the words, they don’t like all the ads. Which is why apps like this are popping up. I get it! But this can be accomplished ethically.

Most of us know Ann and Maddy and Spillt. The beauty of this app is that:

• We still get the traffic. Views in the app “count” as views on our sites.
• When someone reviews one of our recipes in Spillt, that review can appear on our blogs.
• They just launched a new paywall feature so our readers can experience our recipes stripped down and ad free if they want. AND WE GET PAID FOR IT. Damn revolutionary.

This isn’t a sponsored spot. They’re just really great and need a much bigger spotlight for what they’re accomplishing: a recipe app that’s great for the consumer AND the recipe creator.

what can we do?

I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts on apps like these. Do you have a problem with them? Do you think we should try to collectively do something about it? AKA, attempting a class action lawsuit or collectively paying a lawyer to actually play whack-a-mole and send DCMAs on our behalf?

I'm planning on reaching out to the reporters who wrote about Recipeasly back in 2021. Great advice from our friends at Siftr after I ran this by them.

cookbook lab happenings

​The Cookbook Lab is my course that teaches you how to self-publish your own cookbook, from recipe testing to photography and design to marketing.

🧁️ New class alert! Ariel and Liz, the authors of Hungry Authors, will be speaking to Cookbook Lab students on 10/16!

🧁️ Lindsay Landis of Purr Design will be our guest speaker for our design class! She's also working on some great things inside the Cookbook Lab. Stay tuned.

🧁️ Aaaand another guest speaker! Alyson Brown, author of The Flower-Infused Cocktail, will be talking to us about her experience self-publishing and NOT going the POD route on 10/23.

P.S. This year is our best guest speaker lineup ever. If you've been thinking about joining the Cookbook Lab, now is a great time.

talk soon,