Recipe Licensing

Last updated: December 30, 2025

How Recipe Licensing Works

Mom's Cookbook contains recipes from two sources: original family recipes shared by the site owners, and recipes submitted by community members. Each has different licensing terms.

Original Family Recipes

Recipes shared by the Mom's Cookbook team are either:

  • All Rights Reserved - You may view and cook from these recipes for personal use, but may not republish or redistribute them without permission.
  • Creative Commons - Some recipes may be shared under a Creative Commons license, which allows sharing with attribution. The specific license will be noted on the recipe.

The license type is displayed on each recipe page.

Community-Submitted Recipes

When community members submit recipes, they choose how to license their work:

  • CC BY-SA 4.0 (Recommended) - Others may share and adapt the recipe, even commercially, as long as they give credit and share under the same license. Full license text
  • CC BY 4.0 - Others may share and adapt the recipe with credit, without the share-alike requirement. Full license text
  • All Rights Reserved - The recipe may only be viewed on Mom's Cookbook.

Contributor License Agreement

When you submit content to Mom's Cookbook (recipes, comments, photos), you agree to the following:

What You Grant Us

  • A non-exclusive license to display your content on the Service
  • Permission to include your recipes in our RSS feeds
  • Permission to include your content in search results
  • Permission to display your recipes in other users' collections and favorites

What We Will NOT Do

We will never, without your explicit consent:

  • Include your recipes in commercial products for sale (cookbooks, merchandise, etc.)
  • Sell or license your content to third parties
  • Use your content to train AI models

Your Rights

  • You retain full ownership of your original content
  • You can delete your recipes at any time
  • You can choose to keep or remove your recipes if you delete your account
  • Your chosen license remains in effect for content already shared

Understanding Recipe Copyright

Recipe copyright can be complex. Here's what's generally protected and what isn't:

Generally NOT Protected

  • Basic ingredient lists
  • Standard cooking techniques
  • Factual information (cooking times, temperatures)

Generally Protected

  • Original written descriptions and stories
  • Unique creative expression in instructions
  • Original photographs
  • Compilations and collections

This means you can cook any recipe for personal use, but reproducing someone's unique descriptions, stories, or photos without permission may infringe copyright.

Attribution

When sharing recipes from Mom's Cookbook (where permitted by the license):

  • Credit the recipe author by name or username
  • Link back to the original recipe on Mom's Cookbook
  • Indicate the license under which it's shared
  • Note any changes you've made

Example attribution:

“Grandma's Apple Pie” by Jane Smith, from Mom's Cookbook (momscookbook.ca). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted with cinnamon reduction.

Third-Party Content

If you adapt a recipe from another source, please:

  • Ensure you have the right to share it
  • Credit the original source
  • Note what changes you've made

We may remove content that appears to infringe on others' copyrights. See our Terms of Service for our copyright complaint process.

Questions?

For licensing questions, contact us at hello@momscookbook.ca.