Home Worship Planning Music Resources How is it possible for us to remain within the law?

How is it possible for us to remain within the law?

Question

I have been following the threads and reading the FAQs regarding copyright law and the church. What I am interested in is a practical application and recommendation by which a church could adhere to the copyright laws. From what I have seen in the Q&A and the threads, it is pretty much illegal to do any type of modification to a copyrighted work without the express written permission of the copyright holder. This poses a pretty serious problem for the church: How do we comply with the copyright laws without the need for employing a full-time staff member to keep track of all the various requests for permission every time we might want to slightly modify an arrangement, alter a lyric slightly, or transpose a work? The paperwork required would surely be immense and nearly impossible to track and keep up with for a church, let alone attempting to get the necessary permissions from the individual copyright holders in a timely fashion. Many times, we will prepare a new song for worship just days prior and find it necessary to modify the work to suit our groups style, voices, or abilities. According to what I have seen, any attempt to do this, even without actually writing said modifications down, would be a violation of copyright law without receiving permission beforehand. Help!

Response:

There is only one question asked in the above paragraph: How do churches comply with the law without having to hire a staff person just to do the work? The rest of the paragraph names the very common, very real problems faced by churches in complying:

  • It is illegal to modify a copyrighted work without permission.
  • We have frequent need to modify an arrangement, alter a lyric, or transpose a work.
  • The paperwork required to make changes legally is "immense."
  • The time required to make requests of individual copyright holders and keep track of those requests is also great.
  • It is impractical to expect us to plan far enough ahead to make permission requests in a timely and legal manner because we so often make last-minute changes and decisions.

The question, In light of these obstacles faced by churches and musicians, is actually two-fold: How is it possible for us to remain within the law and how can we do it without having to hire a dedicated staff person?

My response must begin with an affirmation of all the stated obstacles to obeying the law. I have personally experienced them in my own churches and struggle with them in my work at the Discipleship Ministries. Surely most of us are all too familiar with them. Part of the answer is in the intent of the copyright law: It exists solely to protect the interests of the copyright owner. The practical aspects, workloads, programming requirements, budgets, and staffing needs of churches are not a consideration in the law. It is really a simple matter: The law exists, and we are required to work within its confines. If we do not, we are at financial and legal risk. There is no way to turn the intent of the law around by asking, "How can I make it practical to my needs as a local church musician?" It can't be done. The expectation and requirement of the law is that we will fully comply.

Perhaps rather than "How can I make the law practical?" the question should really be, "How can I comply with the law?" Here are some suggestions. Each one of us will have to decide how practical these suggestions are.

  • Plan further ahead. Avoid last-minute changes.
  • Keep a calendar or log for copyright needs only — dates planned, dates requests made, approvals and denials, royalty or payment due dates, and so on.
  • Ask the church for additional staff support.
  • Find a volunteer.
  • Keep a log of names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of copyright holders, publishers, and so on. If you can cultivate a personal relationship, you'll have an easier and shorter time in getting responses.
  • Develop an e-mail template or form letter that you can use for permission requests.
  • Inform yourself, your church staff, and your church leaders about the requirements of the law.
  • A more radical approach is one that some larger churches have taken, and that is to avoid using copyrighted music. One of the larger churches in Nashville, with a 100-plus voice choir that provides choral back up to many recordings, TV, and movies, gave up on trying to work within the law. In worship, the church now uses music composed, arranged, and controlled by their own musicians only. Most of us, of course, don't have the people in our churches to allow for that.

The reality is, as I've already stated, the copyright law is not for the benefit of the churches. There is no way for us to make compliance an easy or pleasant thing, or in the words of your question, to make it "practical." That does not, however, excuse us from its provisions. The temptation is for us to become victims of the impracticality, the frustration, and the demands of the law. It is so easy for us to simply say, "I can't follow it. It's too hard. It takes too much time. It's too complicated. It's too expensive. It's too restrictive." All that may be true, but the law is still the law.

Each of us decides if we pay all our taxes, if we drive within the speed limit, and if we pay for our gas before driving away from the pump. We know the consequences of not obeying those laws. We may not like those laws, but we don't insist that they be made "practical" for our personal needs and circumstances. We can ignore them if we wish, but it is at our risk. The same is true with copyright. As with the laws covering taxes, speed, and theft, we don't get to decide which parts of the law we'll obey and which parts we'll ignore.

Contact Us for Help

View staff by program area to ask for additional assistance.

Related


Subscribe

* indicates required

Please confirm that you want to receive email from us.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please read our Privacy Policy page.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.