Episode 5 SHOW NOTES
- Welcome and Intro
- Update on Greg and Anthony
- Overview of our interview
- 1 Timothy 5:18
- Interview with Susan Fontaine Godwin of the Church Copyright Administration and attorneys Jeff Hermes and Brock Shinen
- Introduction of each guest
- Discussion of ethics, royalties and obeying the law
- Susan gives an overview of the 4 annual blanket licenses offered
- Susan gives a more detailed description of their newest license: The Worship Cast License
- Our guests discuss the legalities of using a performance track
- Susan discusses podcasting (Podcasting should be for the sermon only)
- Our guests discuss the legalities of a band preforming a song live and syncing it with video
- What is “fair use“?
- Our guests discuss the use of a movie clip in worship
- Our guests discuss the use of TV show segments in worship
- What is a “parody“?
- Our guests discuss YouTube, Google video and Yahoo video
- What is a “Creative Commons License“?
- Resources: Creative Commons and Podsafe Music Network
- How liable is an individual that is asked to break the law and does it?
- Setup a media policy that lays out your church’s procedure for acquiring proper licenses
- Our guests mention resources that they offer. HERE’S an article on Fair Use by Brock Shinen
- Anthony wraps up the interview
- Greg and Anthony summarize the interview
- Product Spotlight
- WorshipPlanning.com
- “Igniter Videos Volume 5” from Igniter Media Group
- Tech Tip
- Batteries - Buy by the case and change for each service
- Battery resources: Medic Batteries, Batteries Plus, Duracell and Interstate Batteries
- Podcast Sponsor Commercial: WorshipHouse Media
- Got a question or comment you’d like us to tackle? Email us at info@creativesynergypodcast.com
*Here are some extra resource websites: Church Copyright Administration, CCLI, CVLI, Stanford, and Copyright.com
*Coming Soon: Look for our Episode 5.5 featuring bonus questions with CCA’s Susan Fontaine Godwin!
I don’t see it listed in iTunes. Is anyone else having a problem?
Try it now. I had a minor hiccup with my RSS generator.
Here’s the deal. This episode is a lot on the side of the copyright holders. There is some major info having to do with online streaming and archiving withheld from this that you can find out more about at eff.org. I’d also like to say that I’ve worked for and with some NOT small churches that use so much media that to “properly” license it all would mean hiring 2 more full time people , and in both cases the views of the churches is that they would much rather (and most likely) hire 2 more people to work with people in need of counseling, training, etc… Look these churches don’t mean harm and they do all they can to uphold copyright law, but it’s secular to think that a church is going to play at the level of the Colbert Report. Even the biggest churches don’t have the resources that Viacom has, that is after all why fair use was written in the first place.
I believe that this episode is indeed on the side of the copyright holders. The law is the same way though. Unfortunately, copyright holders have a death grip on their content and they will extort every penny out of their works that they possibly can. I believe that there is a simple question that you can ask that will help you cover yourself: Does my use of this hurt the copyright holder in any way? When I’m using this piece of a movie does that cause people to say “I don’t need to see that movie because I’ve seen enough of it at church” or does it cause people to say “I want to see the rest of that movie.” Often people will walk out of church wanting to buy a CD because they loved that new song the Praise Team sang. My church does a lot to protect ourselves when it comes to copyrights, but in the end I ask myself whether its really hurting the copyright owners. That’s just my personal opinion though!
[…] It’s a podcast on the legal issues of using all sorts of types of media within the church framework (in the service, outside the service, on the internet) and you can find it here. I highly recommend listening. […]
[…] Creative Synergy Podcast: Episode 5 on Church Copyright via Tony Dye […]
Speaking as someone whose job is creating content, I think that some protection is fair. Would you take communion wine without paying for it? Then again, the costs should be at a fair level.
I’m just about to listen to the podcast so I’ll find out how the situation differs from us here in the UK. My church has an account with our Church Copyright Licensing International and, to be honest, they neither overcharge nor overburden. We fill in a list of all the music we have copied or displayed on our projector every few years. We also have a license to show films to our youth groups that was only £80 (around $160) a year.
For me, I’ve found the problem with copyright is that it is just too easy to copy media. To return to my point about communion wine, someone has still put time (and often money) into the production process, we have a duty to pay a fair price.
Sorry if I’ve come over too strong. I do value discussions on this topic as it’s the only way that we can all come to a proper conclusion.
Yours in Christ
Tim
I hope you guys talk more about live streaming video and if there is a license required for that. You talked about archiving of streaming video with that new license but not live non-archived video.
A lot of churches are doing a live stream of the service with web sites such as ustream.tv or stickam.com and the license is not very clear. Susan mentioned the new license from Church Copyright Administration but that shouldn’t be necessary to do only live webcasts. I tried to contact them and no one will contact me back about it.
It is really bad to stop churches from innovating by making them scared of copyright issues, but it is an important topic.
My church just got the worshipcast license for our webcast. There isn’t really any distinction between “live” and “archived” as long as the archived footage is not downloadable. That’s why the worshipcast license works for a webcast but not for a podcast, since a podcast is actually downloaded. The reason a license IS required for a live webcast is that it is a public performance (or a broadcast) of copyrighted music. The worshipcast license takes care of your SESAC, ASCAP and BMI obligations for the public performance of their cataloged music.
If all you’re doing is webcasting the sermon, you own that content (typically) and can webcast it to whomever you wish. At my church we leave music in the webcast, but we cut any movie clips because our MPLC license doesn’t allow a direct electronic feed of movie clips for the webcast.
I agree, it is intimidating, but no-one ever said this would be easy or hassle free.
[…] Greg Atkinson e-mailed me, along with others, over a week ago, requesting me to listen to CreativeSynergyPodcast’s latest podcast and also to mention it on here. Greg Atkinson and Anthony Coppedge do a podcast somewhat regularly and Greg describes this one in this way: We just finished our most informative and practical episode on copyright and the Church. We interviewed 3 Church copyright professionals. We learned a great deal during the interview and believe this will be a great resource and help to Church leaders. Also included is a better understanding of the Church Copyright Administration and how they can help churches. […]
I really believe there is a bit of hand waving going on for live broadcast. About a year ago we got concerned over our live broadcst and began searching for answers. I ran across the Church Coptright SOlve that Church Copyright Administration had up. At that time the answer for live broadcasting was something like “You are covered by exemption”. Basically broadcast of religeous service was exempted. Over the next couple of months as we nailed it down the ’solver’ changed its story. When it changed we called CCA only to hear they began negotiating a license with copyright holders and a product would be available soon. Prior to purchasing the license we asked about live again. We couldn’t get a straight answer on the live only broadcast. We decided to be safe and purchase the license. I’m not trying to bag on CCA others are the same. It seems the only people willing to stand behind a copyright decision is someone with a vested interest in you paying them. At least CCA is offering a reasonably priced solution.
I just listened to this podcast, and I really appreciate the fair use discussion. I’ve never heard a comprehensible discussion on the topic before from people qualified to talk about it, so it’s good to have learned lots of new things. It was actually quite a bit more liberal than I would have expected.
I’ve fought the battle of integrity with our staff a couple times, and I find it interesting that they’ll praise a businessman who won’t cheat on a time sheet or accounting book, but want to slide under the radar on copyright.
Keep up the good work.
I would like to see a continuation of the topic
[…] Creative Synergy Podcast #5 - Copyrights and the church […]
It’s a podcast on the legal issues of using all sorts of types of media within the church framework