Copyright Regulations and Audio/Video Distribution within the Local Church ~ Maximizing Media Ministries

Have you ever done it? Have you ever copied music illegally? According to Church Music Publishers Association’s (CMPA) website, penalties can range “from $500 to $100,000 per copyright infringed.” In other words, there are severe penalties for copying music illegally. These penalties not only apply to individuals but to churches as well. But, churches do not have to be fined for making copies of music if they get the proper permission. In this post, we will be looking at why churches need this permission, how they can obtain it, and what it will do for them.

Why churches need permission

Exclusive Rights

First, churches need permission to record or broadcast copyright music because the exclusive rights

to the music have been given to the owner. Usually, the owner is the author or composer but can also be a publisher, etc. The important factor is that there is always someone or some organization that has exclusive rights to all copyright music. Further, these exclusive rights mean that the owner has the right to decide who can make copies. Under copyright law, churches have permission to perform copyrighted religious works within a church service. Thus, permission is still necessary when the church wishes to broadcast or record the music.

Incentives

Another reason why churches need to get permission is that the government hands out stiff penalties for those who copy music illegally. More specifically, when copyrighted music is streamed via the internet without permission, the penalties can be even more severe. According to the Christian Copyright Licensing International’s (CCLI) website, “the penalties can be severe…up to $150,000 per infringement.” In summary, the penalties provide the incentive to do what is right. And the right thing to do is to get permission.

How to get permission

The Basics

Now that we have seen the need to get permission, how are we to get it? There are multiple ways to get this permission for broadcasting or recording. The first method is to get permission from the individual authors or composers, but this method causes for a lot of extra work. While this route may be fine if we were to just get permission for a couple songs, we would not want to do this for long! The better option would be to go through a licensing program that has already done the work for us. While there are a few competitors in this market, the one that is most widely used by churches is the CCLI. This organization provides its services at an annual cost to churches.

CCLI

Now that we have learned the basics of getting permission, we need to know a little more detail. CCLI provides various different licenses so that churches can choose which would be best for them. In order to broadcast our services, we need to choose the “Stream License.” While prices vary depending upon the size of the regular attendance, the starting price comes out at $60 per year. But, this is not all we need because CCLI requires their basic “Church Copyright License” as a prerequisite. The starting price for this comes out at $55 per year. According to their website, this only accommodates up to 24 people. So, most likely we will have to go to the next option. Here, we see the price as being $116 for up to 99 people. Once we have purchased our annual membership through CCLI for both of these licenses, we are ready to go!

What this permission will do

Recording/Streaming

There are two primary actions that our new licensing will allow us to do. These are recording and live streaming our copyrighted music. In order to clarify the distinction between the two licenses, the “Stream License” is the essential element for streaming our services. Without it (or a similar service), we cannot legally broadcast our copyright music. If you did not actually want to live stream your services, but only wanted to record them, then only the basic “Church Copyright License” is necessary.

Benefits/Restrictions

While we purchased the “Church Copyright License” with the sole purpose of live streaming our copyright music, this license also opens the doors for other exciting opportunities as well. As I already mentioned, this license allows us to record the music. In addition, this license also allows us to “Store Lyrics,” “Print Songs,” “Make Custom Arrangements,” “Create Projections,” and “Translate Songs.” Especially useful of the new legal rights that we now have is the ability to copy music for congregational songs. Notice that I said congregational songs. CCLI makes it very clear on their website that the license has certain restrictions attached to it. One particular restriction that we should note is that they only grant permission for religious songs on their list. Their licensing does not allow for the recording or streaming of secular songs.

Conclusion

In summary, we have seen the need for permission, how we are to attain it, and what it will do for us. While the legal restrictions and penalties are a great incentive to do what is right, we must also remember that we have another reason to do what is right. And that reason is that we are to do all to the Glory of God. As such, if we are going to broadcast or record any copyrighted music, we need to be sure that we are doing so legally.

Monday, April 13, 2015