Home Worship Planning Music Resources May I copy from the Hymnal for convenience?

May I copy from the Hymnal for convenience?

Comment:

I believe there is a case within worship or church use were copying is permissible. That case would be when use of the copied material is for the sake of convenience, not duplicating one work into many. For instance, making 100 copies of "Lift High the Cross" from The United Methodist Hymnal would be permitted for an outdoor worship service, provided that the church owns at least 100 or more of the hymnals containing that song (and would then destroy the copies or use them in a similar situation). Similarly, a congregation may want to print the copies of a hymn in the worship folder for the sake of convenience, provided again that the church already owns that many hard copies of the published work. However, it would not be acceptable for a congregation to buy one copy of The United Methodist Hymnal and make 100 copies of any of the material for use in worship.

Response:

The "convenience" provision you cite is one I've heard before. It does not exist, however, in the provisions of current copyright laws, including the fair use provisions. In fact, both examples you give would be prohibited by current law. In your two examples, there is no provision that would allow you to legally do either one without first having the permission of the copyright holder or a license that expressly allows such use. Your ownership of 100 copies of the hymnal is irrelevant to whether or not the law allows you to make up to 100 copies "for convenience" for outdoor worship or for the worship bulletin. Both examples are illegal use of copyrighted material.

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