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 What do Jimmy Fallon and Bananrama have to do with your church’s video productions? They were both involved in recent examples of how failing to plan for copyright issues can minimize the value of the videos on which you spend so much time and effort. In Jimmy Fallon’s case, he and NBC creates some sensational productions for the Emmys, that they could not put on the web because of poor planning. In Bananrama’s case, videos containing their song “Cruel Summer” were pulled from campaign websites for the same reason. Let’s take a look at what happened in each case.
As PaidContent reported:
Host Jimmy Fallon knocked it out of the park with an energetic Glee-esque opener to Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, a mixed pre-taped and live-action number featuring Jane Lynch, Glee kids, Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, and a cameo by Tim Gunn that quickly got social media buzz. The clip should have been online before the next commercial break for NBC to take advantage of that buzz—and to take ownership before others started passing it around.
Another number paying tribute to the end of 24, Law & Orderand Lost, part of it with Fallon channeling Elton John, seemed destined to catch on, at least with fans of those shows. But @NBCLA tweeted back when I mentioned that the videos has yet to post: “Wish we could, but we have restrictions on what we can post online.” A spokeswoman later suggested by e-mail that music rights are the issue.
Let’s read between the lines and see what happened here. Television and radio stations buy licenses from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC that give them permission to broadcast their performances of copyrighted songs. So Jimmy’s skits are covered right? Well, yes they are covered for transmission on television because NBC affiliates have their performance licenses that cover their television and cable broadcasts. On the other (more important) hand, those licenses do not cover their distribution on the web. Because they did not secure the web rights up front, NBC has been unable to put some of those performances online because they were unable (or unwilling to pay the asking price) to secure licensing for internet distribution. As a result, they wasted on opportunity to redistribute some important parts of their show. Continue reading Jimmy Fallon, Bananarama and church video productions
Just got this question on a common subject:
@CopyrightSolver what’s the protocol on using YouTube videos on our church’s website?
YouTube is just a massive Pandora’s box of copyright issues. First of all, almost all of the videos including copyrighted materials that are uploaded to YouTube are done so without getting proper permission. While you can find a clip from just about any movie or TV show on YouTube, almost none of those clips are legal. As a result, when you are putting those videos on your site, you are just doubling down on the original poster’s copyright infringement.
In addition to the problem with the unlicensed video, there is also a problem with any copyrighted music that may be playing in those videos. We know of one non-profit Christian radio station that was contacted by one of the performing rights organizations (PROs) about music videos that they had on their site through a YouTube widget. The PRO didn’t care about the videos being played, but they sure cared about the music that was being played in them.
Stay away from putting YouTube videos on your website unless you created the video and know that you have gotten all the required permissions.
 The altering of corporate logos to convey Christian messages has become fairly commonplace, with altered logos showing up on t-shirts, in sermons and now on cars. A Wisconsin priest recently ran afoul of Best Buy for unauthorized use of the trademarked logo for their Geek Squad service. As the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal reported:
“Best Buy, the Minnesota-based electronics retailing giant, recently sent Strand a cease-and-desist letter concerning his car. The black Volkswagen Beetle has oval door stickers that read “God Squad” in a logo very similar to the black, white and orange logos on black-and-white Geek Squad Beetles driven by the computer and electronics trouble-shooters.”
Just as permission is required to use a copyrighted song, permission is also required to use a trademarked logo. The odds of getting this permission go down when you start talking about altering the logo. Owners of trademarks care very much where their trademark is displayed and they don’t want it to be altered in any way. BestBuy couched their disapproval this way:
“This was a really difficult thing for us to do because we appreciate what Father Strand is trying to accomplish with his mission. But at the end of the day, it’s bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others,” she said in an e-mail.
Stay on the safe side and create your own iconography. If you want to use a trademarked logo, be certain to get permission, but keep in mind that requests to alter that logo will likely be denied.
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