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 Two types of copyrights routinely cause frustration and confusion for many church leaders striving to honor copyright compliance. U.S. Copyright Law allows for eight specific types of works of authorship that can be copyrighted , and two of these are frequently misunderstood. They are music (or songs) – including any accompanying words, and sound recordings – aural reproduction of some material (music, speech or sound), which may or may not itself be copyrighted. It’s understandable that folks struggle to separate the two. For example, when your worship team needs to make copies of “God of Wonders” as recorded by Paul Baloche for rehearsal purposes, it’s a common misconception that you just need one license to do so. In fact, the song (written by Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong) is a music copyright and owned by a the songwriter or publisher, in this case New Spring, Meaux Mercy and Storm Boy Music. Paul Baloche’s specific arrangement, rendition and recording of the song is a sound recording copyright and it is owned by the record label, in this case, Integrity Music. The music copyright is usually owned by the songwriter or one or more publishers, and the sound recording is owned by a separate party–the artist or more often a record company. The owner of the sound recording can usually be determined by locating the P symbol on the back of the CD. Note: the owner of the sound recording is often NOT the owner of the song.
It’s very important to grasp this basic distinction between songs and sound recordings to plan for obtaining licenses and paying royalties, as it impacts a variety of types of uses, exclusive rights, licensing types and fees.
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 [...]
To understand copyright law and how it impacts your ministry, you need to understand the six rights that are exclusive to the owner of a copyrighted work. These rights apply to all works that can be copyrighted. If you want to engage in any of the activities that are the exclusive right of a work’s owner, you need to get permission to engage in that activity.
Reproduction
Only the owner of a copyrighted work is allowed to reproduce or copy that work.
Examples: photocopying lyrics, rehearsal track CDs, creating a digital copy of a video.
Making derivative works
Only the owner of a copyrighted work is allowed to create new works that is “based” on a pre-existing work. US copyright law describes this a derivative work as:
a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted.
Examples: arrangements of songs, adaptations of plays into movies.
Continue reading The six exclusive rights of copyright holders
Many churches have considered using free video hosting services such as YouTube and Vimeo to stream their services. The churches who have investigated the copyright implications have discovered major problems with this course of action. YouTube and Vimeo are not options for putting worship services with music online legally.
In order to [...]
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