“@CopyrightSolver How do we obtain copyright use 2 place on web a vid used n sermon?Is thr something we need? How abt music from worship time?”
Many churches are using video in their services and there are questions about the webcasting of these videos. First things first. Before you can start thinking about webcasting, you need to be certain that you have permission to use the video in question in your service. You can be safe be using videos from the CVLI catalog or specialty providers like SermonSpice. It is important to note that these licenses rarely include internet broadcasting rights (in the case of CVLI and SermonSpice they don’t.) There is not currently a comprehensive source for internet licensed video, so you will most likely need to contact each video’s owner individually. CCS offers a service called PERMISSIONSplus that outsources the acquisition of these and other copyright licenses.
Webcasting music from worship services is a similar matter. While the performance of music during services is protected by the religious exemption, this exemption does not apply to re-transmission of those services, including re-transmission via the internet. Licensing is required to webcast music from services. The type of license that you need will depend on whether you are webcasting your performances of music or using someone else’s recording.
In order to webcast your performance of songs, you need an internet performance license. CCS offers the only internet performance license for churches and it is called WORSHIPcast. The WORSHIPcast license covers over 16 million songs, Christian and secular.
If you are using a recording of the song in a service, you will also need a license to transmit that service from the recording’s owner. You will need to contact the owner of the recording (most often a record label) for permission. Again, the CCS PERMISSIONSplus service is available to you if you want to outsource the acquisition of those licenses.
You might also want to check out our article “Copyright Issues for Webcasting Religious Services“.
As always, feel free to tweet any of your church related copyright questions to @CopyrightSolver