What does everyone else think?
I am just one person but I think several things.
First, your friend's premise is nearly correct, if slightly flawed in its presentation. According to the
U.S. Copyright Office:
Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. Nor does it protect other mere listings of ingredients such as those found in formulas, compounds, or prescriptions. Copyright protection may, however, extend to substantial literary expression—a description, explanation, or illustration, for example—that accompanies a recipe or formula or to a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook.
Note that Jamil's book and the "substantial literary expression" that accompanies the recipe are protected by copyright, but that the "mere listings of ingredients" is not.
That said, the Brewer's Code says that you shouldn't take food from another brewer's mouth... and here we get into the gray area.
If it were me, I would not claim the recipe as my own — that would be a lie. I might present it in the context of a review of the book and provide links to where the reader could buy the book — that would be fair use. Instead of presenting the recipe myself, I might simply link to Fred Bonjour's site which houses — with permission — many of
Jamil's recipes that were available prior to the publishing of Brewing Classic Styles. For those that are not there, or even in addition for those that are, instead of presenting the recipe myself, I might link to the
Jamil Show Archives for the episode in question.
All of that said, a recipe is just that barest of starts on a great beer. Equipment, process, technique, and the brewer's skill are what makes a great beer. Jamil can make a better beer with a can of hopped extract than I can make with the best recipe.
(I am not a lawyer.)
[Edited to remove the "presumably" regarding Fred's permission to post the recipes. See his comment.]