Open Source Part II
Some people are just plain confused. Then again maybe copyright laws are significantly different in Denmark.
A group of IT-students from the IT-University in Copenhagen has launched a new “open-source” beer, writes the technical journal Ingeniøren.
It is described by the students as “a great tasting energetic beer and it’s the world’s first open source beer! It is based on classic ale brewing traditions but with added guarana for a natural energy-boost.
Version 1.0 is a medium strong beer (6% vol) with a deep golden red colour and an original but familiar taste.”
The recipe and the whole brand of Our Beer is published under a Creative Commons license, which basically means that anyone can use the recipe to brew the beer or to create a derivative. Anyone that uses the material has to publish the recipe under the same license (Share Alike) with reference to the originators.
The idea of creating Vores Øl came from students and the art group Superflex.
Well it’s a nice creative idea, I’ll give them that. However there’s just a small problem with it; you can’t put an effective copyright on a recipe. That’s why KFC , Coca~Cola and other food giants go to great lengths to protect their recipes so carefully. If I can figure out the exact combination of ingredients they use I’m free to use them myself. Even if you could put a copyright on a recipe you wouldn’t be able to on any derivative. Change the proportion of an ingredient and you have a whole new recipe. That’s the nature of food. There simply is no way to protect a recipe short of doing what the giants do; lock up the recipe in a safe and don’t allow any one person to know the entire formula. You can patent a formula, and this gives you considerable protection, but it still doesn’t take much of a change in proportions or the addition of an extra ingredient to invalidate that patent.
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