CCLI & Copyright Procedures
COPYRIGHT LAW
Copyright Law exists to protect the creators and sellers of intellectual property. Authors, composers and publishers deserve remuneration for the products they create and sell. So, whenever you copy music (whether it is sheet music or CDs) you now have a product that you did not pay for and the authors and composers are not going to receive the compensation they deserve from your use of that product. In essence, you are stealing.
We as a society have become very good at justifying our actions in this area and perceive there to be huge grey areas in Copyright Law. This is not the case. Whereas some grey areas do exist (mainly as legislation catches up with the technology available in this digital age), Copyright Law is actually very black and white.
Side bar: One area we draw on to justify our actions is the issue of "Fair Use". There is not room to discuss this here but suffice it to say, although we are an educational institution, "Fair Use" does not apply to the music and lyrics we are using for worship.
It is therefore illegal to:
r photocopy music (very few exceptions apply)
r photocopy music (when permitted) without including copyright information
r reproduce lyrics in any form whether it be photocopied, scanned, typed or hand written, for projection or to be stored in a database.
This means that for every song we wish to sing in our worship services we need to have a purchased copy of the music (a song book) for every member of the congregation and praise band. The Salvation Army avoided this issue for many years by publishing its own Songbook but today, when we use songs from many sources, it seems following the letter of the law has become prohibitively expensive.
CHURCH COPYRIGHT LICENSING INTERNATIONAL
Here enters Church Copyright Licensing International (CCLI). CCLI provides a license that permits us to copy and store music and lyrics releasing us from the necessity of buying hundreds of copies of numerous different song books. Again, I appreciate that CCLI might something you are all familiar with, but I would like to take this opportunity to outline CCLI procedures and debunk some myths.
Under the provisions of the CCLI license we can now do many things that would otherwise be illegal.
We can:
a project lyrics using overheads or a computer.
a store lyrics in a database
a make song sheets for a handout
a photocopy music for the praise band
a copy music to make customized songbooks, collections or anthologies.
(Yes, without a CCLI license to do any of the above would be illegal!)
NOTE: Even with a CCLI license we still cannot copy music for use with a choir or a performance group. The license only covers the reproduction of music intended for congregational use.
When reproducing music under the CCLI license the following information must be displayed/included:
Title
Author/Composer
Copyright Information
Used by permission. CCLI # 388556
When projecting lyrics the above information need only appear on the first or last 'slide'.
MYTHS
I can copy any song and put my CCLI # on it.
FALSE. You can only legally reproduce songs that are in the CCLI database. For a full list use the CCLI SongSelect lyric service. If a song is not in the database it cannot be copied under the license and separate permission must be requested from the copyright holder.
I can copy anything from an SA publication.
FALSE. Just because the song is in an Army publication it doesn't mean that the Salvation Army owns the copyright. In this case The Army would have purchased permission to reproduce x number of songs. If you make copies from that book, these are additional copies that the creators/publishers are not being compensated for.
LINKS
CCLI's website
Further information on Fair Use
US Copyright Office - FAQs
Church Music Publishers Association - Copyright Check List
Copyright Law exists to protect the creators and sellers of intellectual property. Authors, composers and publishers deserve remuneration for the products they create and sell. So, whenever you copy music (whether it is sheet music or CDs) you now have a product that you did not pay for and the authors and composers are not going to receive the compensation they deserve from your use of that product. In essence, you are stealing.
We as a society have become very good at justifying our actions in this area and perceive there to be huge grey areas in Copyright Law. This is not the case. Whereas some grey areas do exist (mainly as legislation catches up with the technology available in this digital age), Copyright Law is actually very black and white.
Side bar: One area we draw on to justify our actions is the issue of "Fair Use". There is not room to discuss this here but suffice it to say, although we are an educational institution, "Fair Use" does not apply to the music and lyrics we are using for worship.
It is therefore illegal to:
r photocopy music (very few exceptions apply)
r photocopy music (when permitted) without including copyright information
r reproduce lyrics in any form whether it be photocopied, scanned, typed or hand written, for projection or to be stored in a database.
This means that for every song we wish to sing in our worship services we need to have a purchased copy of the music (a song book) for every member of the congregation and praise band. The Salvation Army avoided this issue for many years by publishing its own Songbook but today, when we use songs from many sources, it seems following the letter of the law has become prohibitively expensive.
CHURCH COPYRIGHT LICENSING INTERNATIONAL
Here enters Church Copyright Licensing International (CCLI). CCLI provides a license that permits us to copy and store music and lyrics releasing us from the necessity of buying hundreds of copies of numerous different song books. Again, I appreciate that CCLI might something you are all familiar with, but I would like to take this opportunity to outline CCLI procedures and debunk some myths.
Under the provisions of the CCLI license we can now do many things that would otherwise be illegal.
We can:
a project lyrics using overheads or a computer.
a store lyrics in a database
a make song sheets for a handout
a photocopy music for the praise band
a copy music to make customized songbooks, collections or anthologies.
(Yes, without a CCLI license to do any of the above would be illegal!)
NOTE: Even with a CCLI license we still cannot copy music for use with a choir or a performance group. The license only covers the reproduction of music intended for congregational use.
When reproducing music under the CCLI license the following information must be displayed/included:
Title
Author/Composer
Copyright Information
Used by permission. CCLI # 388556
When projecting lyrics the above information need only appear on the first or last 'slide'.
MYTHS
I can copy any song and put my CCLI # on it.
FALSE. You can only legally reproduce songs that are in the CCLI database. For a full list use the CCLI SongSelect lyric service. If a song is not in the database it cannot be copied under the license and separate permission must be requested from the copyright holder.
I can copy anything from an SA publication.
FALSE. Just because the song is in an Army publication it doesn't mean that the Salvation Army owns the copyright. In this case The Army would have purchased permission to reproduce x number of songs. If you make copies from that book, these are additional copies that the creators/publishers are not being compensated for.
LINKS
CCLI's website
Further information on Fair Use
US Copyright Office - FAQs
Church Music Publishers Association - Copyright Check List
