Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Reproduction of restaurant menus and photos

As you will be selling the restaurant guide for profit, chances are that you will need to obtain permissions from the restaurant owners for including their menus and restaurant images, whether it be taking materials straight from their websites or menus or materials which you will create but based on their materials. Depending on bargain power, the restaurant owners may or may not request a fee for such permission, but you will definitely need to seek their permissions to engage in the activities below.

Re: Reproduction of restaurant menus and photos

Under modern copyright law, copying any work which has been fixed in a tangible medium of expression entails some risk. Retyping word for word will not help.

I would suspect that most restaurants would be happy to have to copy their menu and would give you a release to do so as part of your guide.

Photos from their web site are theirs, unless they give you a release.

You can photograph a building if it is visible from a public area.

The fair use doctrine allows you to use excerpts from a menu as part of a review or critique, but the law is very fuzzy.