It's official - Mrs Seinfeld is not a plagiarist

Mac H.

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A while ago, someone claimed that Mrs Seinfeld's cookbook was plagiarised from an earlier one which covered the same basic topic - sneaking vegetables into food for kids.

Here's the court's finding:

http://reporter.blogs.com/files/seinfeld.pdf

To quote:

Plaintiffs assert that “the two works are substantially similar in their unique and innovative expression of the idea [of sneaking vegetables into children’s food] by means of a cookbook containing comprehensive instructions for making and storing a variety of vegetable purees in advance, and then using the purees in specially created recipes for children’s favorite foods.”

We are not persuaded.

Stockpiling vegetable purees for covert use in children’s food is an idea that cannot be copyrighted. ...

Further, to the extent the two works have general and abstract similarities – including their vaguely similar titles and inclusion of illustrations of prepared dishes, health advice, personal narrative, descriptions of how to make purees, instructions for preparing dishes, and language about children’s healthy eating – the district court correctly concluded that these elements do not raise a fact issue for trial because they are “scènes à faire,” or “unprotectible elements that follow naturally from [the] work’s theme rather than from [the] author’s creativity.

(“Labeling certain stock elements as ‘scenes a faire’ does not imply that they are uncopyrightable; it merely states that similarity between plaintiff’s and defendant’s works that are limited to hackneyed elements cannot furnish the basis for finding substantial similarity.”)

Our independent comparison of the two cookbooks confirms that the “total concept and feel” of Deceptively Delicious is very different from that of The Sneaky Chef.

I like how in these legal discussions 'hackneyed' isn't actually an insult !

Mac