That's a fantastic question and I have no idea what the answer is. I'm not sure anyone here can answer it but I hope someone can.

I am enjoying listening to the music I recorded from my church's worship service. Many times I listen to the music at work or whenever I am using my ipod. It really helps me to continue worshiping God after the service!!!!!!!!! It is hard to explain since the quality is not like Hillsong, but it is just inspirational.

Tim

Usually, if it was here in the US, I'd say you should get permission from the pastor or performers (similar to getting permission to use a photo that has someone in it).

Was it a professional concert? (ie did people pay to get in?)

I don't think there's any copyright issue here as long as you don't try and sell it. But the polite thing to do would be to contact the pastor / leader and ask them if you can give their music away.

Bishop Booyah,

Thanks for the advice!!!!! This makes sense. Asking for permission is wise and fare.

Tim

As always, let me start by saying... I am not a copyright attorney. Nothing that follows is to be construed as legal advice...

That said, if you recorded the music, and nothing was posted saying you couldn't, even in the united states you would own the "master copy", not the group performing. However, Colombia is not a country that participates in the Copyright Act, so even if they did post something, you wouldn't have to worry about getting the church's permission for the recorded songs.

The songs themselves are the legal sticking point. In the United States, you would not legally be able to distribute them (even for free) without what is called a mechanical license, unless the songs were in the public domain in the country of origin. Because Colombia doesn't participate in the Copyright Act, United States copyright law defaults to protecting the songwriter under US law. So, unless the song was written before 1927, it probably does not live in the Public Domain.

It gets even stickier! (Now I'm just showing off, by the way:) )

If this was contemporary music, odds are it was translated into spanish. Lots of songs are legally translated into spanish, but on my trips to south america with the music group I used to travel with, I discovered that the VAST majority of the songs they sang down there were translated by the church themselves... which is illegal under US Copyright law, believe it or not! It's not illegal to translate them, it's just illegal to translate them and record them without clearance from the publishing company.

So, long story short... it's almost certainly NOT legal for you to give those to people, whether you get permission from the church or not.

Sorry!

Blessings,
Tony

Copyright law is such a pain for churches. I would love to see some Christians write their own awesome songs and release them into the public domain. Or grab some really own stuff and reuse it.

Though, things do get sticky with the whole put food on the table and roof over the head thing.

I've looked into Creative Commons for this. The problem is that any CC license that allows Churches to use the song actually allows them to record the song and charge money for it... because they are a non-profit, and that use would be covered under a CC-Non-Commercial License. And I would like to get my 9 cents per cd sold if that were to happen. I'm certainly not well-off enough to not need that money to help pay my mortgage.

Now, my recordings are a whole different story. I have licensed some of them CC Non-com, but I would have a real problem licensing my actual songs that way, and allow any non-profit to record them for whatever use they feel like.

Just my thoughts as a songwriter.

Blessings,
Tony

The topic of copyright free music is always on my mind.

The people God gives me to help grow usually come from unchurched homes. Christian music is foreign to most of my friends. I buy them as much as I can to help them see something different.

The thing is that my friends go to church and do not know the music. I want to give them a CD with the music that is sung at church, so they can listen to it during the week. Then when they come back to church they would know some music.

I always thought that having all the music sung at church be copyright free would be a great thing since all new songs could be given to attenders before the songs where sung. This would help the church attenders know the songs before they were song. I think this would really help worship.

Here is one site I was looking at: http://freepraiseandworship.org Is this really copyright free? Could churches use this site to use music that could be recorded and given away to their church attenders? This is the sites terms: http://freepraiseandworship.org/new/terms.htm

Tim

I am a member of this site. The site itself is just a repository of people giving their songs and chord charts a way for free. All copyrights are still held by the songwriters. Here's the relevant information from their site:

If you wish to make a recording or other reproduction of a song and then sell it, you must first contact the author to obtain permission. When you search for a song, the Authors name is a link that shows next to the song title. Click on that link to get the contact information for the author.

I know it says "sell" in that first sentence, but it really makes no difference. The federal copyright act considers all sorts of distribution to be the same, whether it's sold or given away. You still need a mechanical license to record and distribute the songs. You see, the Free Praise and Worship license covers the recordings and charts they are distributing, not the concept of the song itself, what is called intellectual property. However, after re-reading their license, you WOULD be able to make a CD of the recordings that are hosted on the site itself... but NOT the higher-quality recordings that are linked to from the site. Just the ones that reside on the frepraiseandworship.org servers.

Really, anyone can record almost any song and give it away. Here's the thing... you don't have to pay anyone any money if the song has been previously recorded and distributed in the United States, if you are not actually selling them. So, theoretically, you could record and give away any song you wanted (as long as it had been previously recorded and "released") in "phono-record" format. You wouldn't owe the songwriter any money if YOU weren't making money. But there's a catch...

You STILL need the mechanical license, and no one is going to give it to you under those terms. At that point, you have to file for a "Compulsory License" from the government. There is a filing fee involved, and you have to report your earnings quarterly with the government, and it's a real hassle. And if you aren't making any money, you get audited by the IRS, etc... You basically have to keep records of all the CD's you made, and have records of where they went, just as if you'd sold them. It's a nightmare, that's why no one does this. But you could.

Blessings,
Tony

anthonypero,

After reading your posts, it seems like it is impossible for anyone to create copyright free music that churches could use in any way they desired. Is this true?

Tim

Any songwriter can write a song and license it in such a way that a non-profit, such as a church, could record it for free. There are many licenses out there to do this thing. It's not that songwriters can't, it's just that they don't.

Like I said, I've licensed some of my recordings as creative commons non-commercial, so churches can copy them and distribute them via cd and what not, or use them in a montage, or anything like that. I've always been hesitant to license my actual songs (the Intellectual Property) that way. The licenses I've seen are just too broad for my tastes, and I can't afford to hire a copyright attorney to write something specific.

Plus, I write music and try to make a living doing it... Churches are the main people who need to use my songs. How am I supposed to make enough to feed my family licensing my songs for churches? Someday I'd like to not be working two jobs and building websites AND writing songs to provide for my family.

We hand out a sampler CD to visitors at our church, of our praise band, but we use my original songs and rearranged, contemporary hymns that are in the public domain. Almost 40% of the music we do at our church falls in this category, either public domain songs or songs written by members of our congregation. If we ever got up to 100% it would completely negate the whole copyright issue.

Blessings,
Tony

God Bless you Tony for what you do to serve us!!!!!!!

Tim

Thank you for your kind words Tim...

Blessings,
Tony