{"id":2847,"date":"2015-09-17T18:23:45","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T18:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jolt.richmond.edu\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2019-03-08T19:52:21","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T00:52:21","slug":"blog-foodporn-in-the-us-is-it-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/2015\/09\/17\/blog-foodporn-in-the-us-is-it-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: #FoodPorn in the US – Is it Illegal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"food-porn-thumb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By: Jenni Lyman,<\/p>\n

The salmon roe and sweet red onion cr\u00e8me fraiche topped with salmon tartare, molded into a dome resembling a scoop of ice cream, placed into a cone-shaped black sesame tuile, and served to diners in a standing rack is uncontestably picture worthy.[1]<\/a> But, in Germany, restaurant goers are prohibited from capturing their plate\u2019s aesthetics through the lens because \u201cFood Porn\u201d is banned.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Food porn is the visual experience of something that other people can smell and taste.[3]<\/a> Amateur food photography is a new cultural phenomenon dictated by those who wish to document their restaurant visits or kitchen creations on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Globally, many chefs around the world believe food porn is more sinister than the innocuous vibrant rainbow of macaroons or the \u201cpillowy gnocchi\u201d that skulks one\u2019s newsfeed.[5]<\/a> New York\u2019s, David Chang, owner of Momofuku Ko, prohibits food photography in his restaurant.[6]<\/a> French chef, Giles Goujon, claims, \u201c[food porn] takes away the surprise, and a little bit of my intellectual property.\u201d[7]<\/a> Some chefs proffer more practical reasons. British chef, Daniel Doherty, tweeted, \u201cI don\u2019t mind\u2026but if said [pictures] take [ten minutes] and you complain food is cold\u2026\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

In Germany, it is held that the cook is regarded as the creator of the work for food that is carefully arranged in a famous restaurant.[9]<\/a> Prior to posting the photo on social media, the diner must ask permission of the master chef\u2014or anticipate a possible copyright warning notice.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Here, in the United States, diners have valid defenses against most intellectual property claims alleged by irate chefs.[11]<\/a> Food is not protectable under copyright law, therefore, snapping a food photo of uncopyrighted work does not lead to an unauthorized derivative.[12]<\/a> Secondly, even if a chef claims trade dress in respect to his food plating, a diner\u2019s post of their plated moules-frites on Instagram would be considered nominative fair use under trademark law.[13]<\/a> Finally, patent infringement does not lend itself to a cause of action against food porn because the diner does not, \u201cmake, use, offer to sell, or sell\u201d the patent product.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

For now, restaurant goers in the United States can rejoice and have their cameras ready because food porn is legal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Cathay Y. N. Smith, Food Art: Protecting \u201cFood Presentation\u201d Under U.S. Intellectual Property <\/em>Law, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L., 2014, at 1, 2.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Katie Amey, \u2018Food porn\u2019 censored: Why it\u2019s ILLEGAL to upload pictures of meals to Instagram in Germany<\/em>, Daily Mail, Aug. 18, 2015, http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/travel\/travel_news\/article-3202031\/Food-porn-censored-s-ILLEGAL-upload-pictures-meals-Instagram-Germany.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Cari Romm, What \u2018Food Porn\u2019 Does to the Brain<\/em>, The Atl., Apr. 20, 2015, http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2015\/04\/what-food-porn-does-to-the-brain\/390849\/.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Smith, supra <\/em>note 1, at 22.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Romm, supra <\/em>note 3.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Cathay Y. N. Smith, Food Art: Protecting \u201cFood Presentation\u201d Under U.S. Intellectual Property <\/em>Law, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L., 2014, at 22.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Xanthe Clay, Is it wrong to photograph your food in restaurants?, <\/em>The Tel., <\/em>Feb. 19, 2014, http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/foodanddrink\/restaurants\/10648419\/Is-it-wrong-to-photograph-your-food-in-restaurants.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Helena Horton, Could your Instagram \u2018food porn\u2019 posts actually be illegal?,<\/em> The Tel, <\/em>Aug. 19, 2015, http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/technology\/11811694\/instagram-pictures-food-porn-illegal.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Id. <\/em><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Cathay Y. N. Smith, Food Art: Protecting \u201cFood Presentation\u201d Under U.S. Intellectual Property <\/em>Law, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L., 2014, at 23.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo source: \u00a0https:\/\/ionetheurbandaily.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/06\/food-porn-thumb.jpg<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Jenni Lyman, The salmon roe and sweet red onion cr\u00e8me fraiche topped with salmon tartare, molded into a dome resembling a scoop of ice cream, placed into a cone-shaped black sesame tuile, and served to diners in a standing rack is uncontestably picture worthy.[1] But, in Germany, restaurant goers are prohibited from capturing their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51366],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paMHOZ-JV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}