MAKING PEACE WITH COPYRIGHT LAW
Richard R. Hammar
January 1, 1991
Adapted with permission from Church Law & Tax Report
What do these have in common?
Duplicating copyrighted choral music.
Producing audio or video recordings of church services in which copyrighted music is performed.
Photocopying "chorus booklets" or similar compilations of familiar church songs.
Making overhead transparencies of copyrighted music.
Showing a rented "Chariots of Fire" video during the senior high lock-in.
Running off an extra copy of music for an accompanist.
Inserting copyrighted hymn lyrics in bulletins or worship programs.
Answer? They all break copyright law. A church can be liable for fines from $500 to $20,000 for a single infringement, and up to $100,000 if the infringement was intentional. Copyright law has teeth.
But following copyright regulations can be time consuming, costly, and inconvenient. Compliance menaces worship services, Sunday bulletins, and the Christmas cantata.
Copyright law may seem designed to make writers, composers, and publishers rich at the local church's expense. Yet, in actuality, copyright law is written to help-not hurt-us. How? By giving artists an incentive to produce new works. It guarantees a limited "monopoly" on their creations, thwarting widespread pirating of their works, which would leave them little financial compensation. We want talented composers, writers, and artists to produce, because some of their work ends up benefiting the church.
Singing a legal song
The first step, then, to following copyright law is determining the boundaries.
Consider music: we are free to copy a "public domain" work. This piece has lost its copyright protection or was never protected in the first place. Generally, if a work is more than seventy-five years old, it's in the public domain. ...
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