Copyrighted Music in Mass?

[S_V7]

Is it moral to play and perform copyrighted music for Mass and Church festivals without permission from the copyright holder?

No money is being charged for the music…but I think it still breaks copyright law.

?

 

[teachccd]

One should obtain the appropriate permission for copyrighted material. If this were done innocently, which I’m sure that it does many times, I’m sure that not much will be done. But be careful because this is illegal and can have consequences. Most copyright permissions are granted and sometimes there is a minimal or no charge.

 

[bengal_fan]

it is illegal to perform the music without the licensing.

however, most hymns are public domain so no license is needed.

most religious organizations buy a ccli license which encompasses nearly all other “non public” religious songs. they must report the songs they use so that the artist can get their share of the royalties paid in the once a year fee to ccli.

the other option is that if you have a copy of the music, paid for, in the hand of each performer, you have paid for the copyright to perform it. i have also heard there can be a loophole in that if the music is memorized, you only need one copy present in the room that it is being performed.

if there are song books in the church and they have been purchased from a publishing company, the copyright law has been fulfilled as well.

basically, if you make copies or download the music or just figure it out and write it down, you break the law.

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

This is from the CCLI article on Wikipedia, although I’m not sure how accurate it is, just posting it for further investigation:

It is important to note that the performance of works in copyright (for example, playing music) as part of an act of worship is specifically exempted from copyright laws.

The same issues arose for church musicians, who needed an collection of music books. Frequently, they resorted to photocopying music, which again is a breach of copyright law.
To undertake this legally would previously have required a church to obtain permission from all the copyright holders, a time-consuming and potentially costly process. CCLI has simplified matters by negotiating agreements with music publishers that enable them to issue licenses giving permission for words or music to be copied in return for a specified fee.

Important to note, your parish or diocese probably already has the copyright licensing arrangements made, if needed, or has some other rule for music directors to follow.

 

[S_V7]

Does anyone know how I can get permission? We play from books and cd’s. From a cd we (if i remember correctly) sometimes kind of figure out how the song goes and go from there, which probably isn’t very legal:blush:

any ideas for how to address this to the priest in charge of the choir?

what about making copies of the lyrics for the singers?

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

Contact your diocese’s music worship department. You may already have the necessary permissions in place.

Does anyone know how I can get permission? We play from books and cd’s. From a cd we (if i remember correctly) sometimes kind of figure out how the song goes and go from there, which probably isn’t very legal:blush:

any ideas for how to address this to the priest in charge of the choir?

what about making copies of the lyrics for the singers?

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

Contact your diocese’s music worship department. You may already have the necessary permissions in place.

Some of the permissions may be implicit when you purchase the music books. Song to song is probably handled by the music publishing company.

 

[S_V7]

I haven’t looked it our diocese’s music worship department (I don’t know if we even have one)

I looked around and found this site
reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=1647

This one applies

Q. I found a song I want to use. How do I go about getting permission?

A. …Most publishers charge a nominal fee (around $20); individual copyright holders may also charge fees. One-time use licenses (also covers weddings, funerals) and special event licenses (retreats, conferences, denominational gatherings) are also available from several publishers and copyright license companies.

does anyone know how much a single song would cost? I thought I’d be a small amount but considering how many songs outside our hymn book we play and the number of times we play them, the amount seems like quite a bundle. Not to mention we sometimes arrange songs.

 

[Joe_5859]

I haven’t looked it our diocese’s music worship department (I don’t know if we even have one)

I don’t know about “music worship department”, but every diocese has a Worship and/or Liturgy Office. They would be the ones to give you legal advice on this matter far better than us CAF members! If you would like, you can PM me with what diocese you’re from, I could look up the contact info for your diocese for you (if you don’t already have it).

 

[Scott6003]

Most churches that are using the songs in mass already have the permission of the artist/composer. Like others have said most of the music there is for public use.

~Scott

 

[Antrim]

The Hyme books are Printed for the Parish or Dioses and paid for by one or the other. The Publisher knows that when he does it so that way permision is granted to use them.

The Organist or Choir director may change it to suit the Choir so as to get what they need for the right Harmony sound.

Once the Music is rearranged the person that rearranged it has the Copyright not the Publisher.

I would say the Copyright in this case is so that no one takes a book and uses it for their own use to make money.

Antrim.

 

[Antrim]

I would like to add something here. I was thinking about recording a few C Ds to give to a few friends.

I contacted the Publishers and told them what I wanted to do and that there would be no money made from it. They answered me and said as long as I was not making any money or using them for Commercial purposes there was no problem.

That tells me that since no one in the Choir is making money there is no problem.

So please everyone who has concerns about this be at peace. There is nothing to worry about.

Antrim