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| "I am honoured to endorse CCLI...an organisation that exists to see the praises of God declared throughout the earth. Praise God for people who through excellence and unity are committed to spirit and truth worship being restored to the House of God." | 
Darlene Zschech
Songwriter, Worship Leader |
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The Internet gives us access to an ever-expanding wealth of resources. Sophisticated search engines and detailed databases deliver huge amounts of material, including sound recordings, song lyrics, sheet music, chord charts, movies and TV programs. Most of this material is protected by copyright law both in Australia and overseas. One problem with the availability of all this content is how to work out which material you can legitimately use without contravening copyright laws. Can you assume that all content on the Internet has been made available with the permission of the copyright owner? The short answer is “no” you cannot.
We know that an enormous amount of copyright material on the Internet is available without the authority of the copyright owner. Legitimate providers - such as music sites iTunes and Bigpond - have to compete with a proliferation of unauthorised sources. Some high profile court cases and associated media coverage have drawn attention to this issue. A couple of years ago Viacom, which owns Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Studios among other media brands, launched a legal action in the US courts against YouTube (which is now owned by Google) in relation to the posting of unauthorised clips from movies and TV shows. Around the same time Google also became the target of a legal action brought by several major book publishers in relation to its Google Library project which involves the digitisation of books. A couple of years ago in Australia, the distributors of the filesharing software Kazaa agreed to pay record companies tens of millions of dollars in compensation for authorising the download of infringing music files. The music industry now has other such filesharing programs in its sights. Individual users are not immune either.
If you want to ensure you are not infringing copyright, by downloading, emailing or printing unauthorised material for example, you need to ensure that you source copyright material from a site that has been licensed by the copyright owner. This will generally involve an agreement between the operator of the site and the music publisher, songwriter, film production company or other copyright owner for the use of the material in return for payment, which might be a royalty from sales of the material.
The fact that content is available for free does not necessarily mean that is unauthorised. Some sheet music sites operate on the basis of an advertising-supported business model. Also some singer-songwriters (generally those not signed to a major record label) make tracks and even whole albums available for free on the Internet.
So how do you make sure you access and use legitimate material without infringing copyright? It is not necessarily easy, but here are some suggestions:
- Go directly to the websites of the owners of the material you want to use, such as record companies, music publishers and songwriters, to see if they offer material or direct you to sources they have licensed.
- In the case of websites you are unfamiliar with, look at the “About Us”, “Terms and Conditions” or “Copyright” areas of the site. If the site is licensed by copyright owners to offer material it will generally say so. For example, WingClips.com, a site that offers churches access to movie clips to use for sermon illustration, provides a warranty that it is licensed by copyright owners to offer the service. If in doubt, contact the owners of the site and ask.
- Consider avoiding accessing material from sites that facilitate the sharing of large amounts of infringing material by users and have been targeted by copyright owners, such as YouTube and BitTorrent (although not all of the material shared using these sites is unauthorised).
- Where you have accessed legitimate material, make sure that you are aware of the terms and conditions of use of that material so that you use it in an appropriate way and without breaching the licence terms.
There is a wealth of content out there to use and enjoy. Using legitimate, licensed material means that songwriters and other creators benefit from the use of their work and are encouraged to create more of it.
Virginia Morrison is a Copyright Lawyer and Consultant she can be contacted at
Morrison Legal Pty Ltd
PO Box 72
Artarmon 1570
Phone: +61 2 9411 5471
Email: morlegal@optusnet.com.au
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| 1. |
How Great Is Our God
Tomlin, Chris/Reeves, Jesse/Cash, Ed |
| 2. |
In Christ Alone
Townend, Stuart/Getty, Keith |
| 3. |
Blessed Be Your Name
Redman, Beth/Redman, Matt |
| 4. |
How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Townend, Stuart |
| 5. |
Here I Am To Worship
Hughes, Tim |
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Australia
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