ChurchSafety

See also: Assessment: Are We Violating Copyright Law?  

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What do these have in common?

• Duplicating copyrighted choral music.
  
  
• Producing audio or video recordings of church services in which copyrighted music is performed.
  
  
• Photocopying "chorus booklets" or similar compilations of familiar church songs.
  
  
• Making overhead transparencies of copyrighted music.
  
  
• Showing a rented "Chariots of Fire" video during the senior high lock-in.
  
  
• Running off an extra copy of music for an accompanist.
  
  
• Inserting copyrighted hymn lyrics in bulletins or worship programs.
  
  

Answer? They all break copyright law. A church can be liable for fines from $500 to

$20,000 for a single infringement, and up to $100,000 if the infringement was intentional. Copyright law has teeth.

But following copyright regulations can be time consuming, costly, and inconvenient. Compliance menaces worship services, Sunday bulletins, and the Christmas cantata.

Copyright law may seem designed to make writers, composers, and publishers rich at the local church's expense. Yet, in actuality, copyright law is written to help—not hurt us. How? By giving artists an incentive to produce new works. It guarantees a limited "monopoly" on their creations, thwarting widespread pirating of their works, which would leave them little financial compensation. We want talented composers, writers, and artists to produce, because some of their work ends up benefiting the church.

The first step, then, to following copyright law is determining the boundaries. Consider music: we are free to copy a "public domain" work. This piece has lost its copyright protection or was never protected in the first place. Generally, if a work is more than seventy-five years old, it's in the public domain. Yet a few cautions are in order.

1. Although we are authorized to use public domain lyrics, various arrangements of those lyrics may be copyrighted.
   
   
2. It's difficult sometimes to determine if a work is in the public domain. One sure sign that a musical piece isn't in the public domain is a copyright notice-"copyright" or a © with a date (which refers to the year of publication).
   
   
3. A new law eliminates the need for copyright notices on works created on or after March 1, 1989. So, we can't assume a work is in the public domain if it simply lacks a copyright notice.
   
   

Thus, if we want to be absolutely sure, we can contact the Copyright Office (which receives requests for copyright status only by mail and charges a $10 fee) or we can check with the publisher.

Another way to copy music legally is to obtain permission by writing the copyright owner (often the publisher) in advance. For a nominal fee—and sometimes for free— publishers of religious music will permit churches to make transparencies, bulletin inserts, and audio tapes, but these copies must be distributed free or at cost.

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See Related Assessment:

Are We Violating Copyright Law?

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