Worship and Copyright Laws

With all of the new technology available to churches and new licensing products out there, I wanted to make sure that we all understand how copyright laws affect today's worship ministries. There are many misconceptions as to what we can and can't do with music and recordings, as well as displaying lyrics and showing video clips. The purpose of this article is to address some of those misconceptions and point you to some valuable resources that help lift the burden of being "legal".

Let's start by looking at how copyright laws began. The copyright laws that are in place today come from an English law passed in 1710 called the Statute of Anne. After the American Revolution, early states passed laws similar to this statute and, when the Constitution was drafted, copyright protection was written into it in Article 1, Section 8 which provided protection for intellectual property. The first actual copyright law was enacted in 1790 and went through several revisions, the final revision being drafted in 1909. Rapid development in technology, particularly in the area of broadcast communications, made it clear that the current law was inadequate and needed to be revised. In 1955 Congress made funds available for research and, after many years of studies and debates, The House of Representatives passed H.R. 2512 in 1967. Again, due to technology that seemed to be changing at the speed of sound, copyright laws seemed inadequate and in February, 1976 the Copyright Act of 1976 passed with a vote of 97-0. This law, along with a few addendum, is the basis on which copyrights are issued and upheld today.

Copyrights are used to protect property, which are in most cases, considered to be intellectual. When a songwriter creates a musical masterpiece, he or she has provided a work of art based on his/her talent and expertise. Often times, the final product will also contain talent and expertise of other individuals, but the initial idea came from the writer who is, in most cases, the copyright owner. The only right we are given to a published work of art is to view or listen to it, whichever the case may be. Anything beyond that, unless explicitly provided by the author, is a copyright violation.

So how does this affect our worship ministry? I'm glad you asked, read on. The church that I attend incorporates contemporary, high energy worship music into its services. The process begins with our worship leader purchasing and listening to new contemporary worship music and choosing songs that fit our church's style of worship and are theologically sound. Once he has determined set lists for a particular week, he distributes the recordings of the music via an online worship planning site. The musicians are notified via email when the recordings are available and will listen or download the files for listening and practicing prior to rehearsal. The band rehearses, then performs the music live for our Sunday services.

The tech team enters the lyrics of each song into the presentation software for displaying on the video projection screens. Though my church doesn't do this, some churches print the lyrics in the weekly bulletin. Additionally, the services are recorded for CD distribution and/or streamed live over the Internet. It doesn't take an engineering degree to see that there is quite a bit of potential for copyright infringement.

Okay, so let's break it down to see what types of licenses we need and how we can make sure we are covered. First, as the worship leader looks for new music, there are literally thousands of free and low cost resources to choose from. YouTube is probably the most popular free site online for listening to music by original artists. There are other subscription based services, such as Rhapsody and Napster that allow you to download as much music as you want for a low monthly cost. The iTunes store offers individual song purchases or the entire CD. These practices do not violate any copyright laws, however if you choose a song to use in your service, you must legally own the song in order to distribute that song. You must obtain a "mechanical license" and a "master recording license" and pay fees and royalties for the number of songs you need to distribute.

Next, in order to display or print lyrics of any copyrighted songs, you have to get permission. Remember that music is intellectual property and the only right we have been granted to that music is to listen. If the service is recorded or streamed, you will need a "video sync license" so as not to be in violation of copyright statutes. Quite often, movie clips are used in services, which opens up a whole new area for consideration.

If you are still reading at this point, you must feel pretty overwhelmed. Staying legal in our worship can be a daunting task, but it is imperative that we do! Fortunately, there are some very good resources for helping us do just that.

CCLI, Christian Copyright Licensing International, is a private company established in 1988 to help churches stay legal in most, if not all of these areas. They offer licensing packages that cover music, lyrics, video clips, streaming, and rehearsals and all of their licensing programs are based on congregation size and cover most of the top worship songs used in today's contemporary worship services. They also provide database access to their song library which is built into the more popular presentation software packages like Easy Worship and ProPresenter. They also provide video and streaming licensing as well.

Copyright Solver is another resource that provides licensing solutions for streaming, performing, and distribution.

Copyright issues should not be taken lightly. Our communities look to us to be above reproach in everything we do and we must comply. If you are interested in reading more about the Copyright laws in place at present, go to http://www.copyright.gov/title17/ for a complete version of the existing Copyright Law.