Q & A: Is it OK to freely use music from iTunes or Amazon in my church videos if I give them credit?

QUESTION:

I am wondering about getting permission to use music. I understand the copyright law to mean that as long as we properly cite copyrighted material, we can use it. Is that not right? I always buy the song for 99 cents on Amazon.com and then cite it at the end.

ANSWER:

Though my specific answer here will involve music, this question of the proper use of copyrighted materials has caused confusion for decades for church communicators and the confusion has only gotten worse because the internet makes it possible for us to easily download and use anything that is online. I usually find a few good Christian music on https://musiccritic.com. After I find something that my ears love, I download them somewhere else. But we often forget the legalities of such actions as we only use them personally.

In addition to ease of use, another confusion enters in with the idea that, as the person above mentioned, that it is OK to use something as long as you cite the source. Here's a synopsis of how I'll answer these questions:

Is it OK to freely use music you download so long as you cite the source?   

The short answer is "no." I'll explain why and why there is confusion about it.

How do you get legal permission for music?

There is no short answer here. The process is complex and may be costly.

Where can you get free sounds and music?

The option is to use free or copyright-free material, sources and links will be listed.

OTHER RESOURCES: What about materials for my other creative projects other than music?

Links will be given for how copyright applies to images and clipart, along with great links for free material.

Is it OK to use something so long as you cite the source?

The confusion here comes from what we were taught in school in that if you use something, say in a research paper, or for teaching that all you need to do is cite the source and you are OK. This is the doctrine of "Fair Use."

The following quote is from  a section of the U.S. Government Copyright Law. Reading the entire section is useful, but in the following except, I've highlighted what pertains to the question here.

One of the more important limitations is the doctrine of “fair use.” The doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law.

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

• 1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

In summary, what was OK and proper procedure for a term paper or school project (use and cite) is not OK, according to law, in something you create under your name and, for example, post on the internet or even more importantly try to sell in any way.

One more clarification: Just because you buy a piece of music or artwork or anything else does not mean you have purchased the rights to reuse it in any way you want. Purchasing the rights to reuse, not just enjoy something, will be explained in more detail below. This is easier to understand when you think about buying a book. Just because you buy a book, does not mean you can take the author's words and reuse them any way you want in a book of your own and then share it online to sell your creation. You must either get or buy permission or use copyright free materials which we'll now explain following.

How do you get legal permission for music?

We aren't talking here about permissions for music in your church—most churches are familiar with CCLI and if you aren't, please check them out. Below is a brief description of who they are and a link to them.

"Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) was established in 1988 to provide churches with simple, affordable solutions to complex copyright issues. CCLI helps churches maintain their integrity and avoid costly lawsuits, while also giving churches the freedom to worship expressively and spontaneously." http://www.ccli.com/

In referring to CCLI, Wikipedia adds this note, which may be useful when looking for music:

No license is needed if all music is in the public domain or covered by something like the Creative Commons licenses. As an example, most hymns published before 1940 are in the public domain. CCLI maintains a list of songs that are in the public domain. If all the songs that an organization uses are in that list, then the organization does not need to pay the CCLI license fee. As of July 15, 2007, CCLI's list contained 7270 public domain songs.

However, this would not cover the performance of a piece of music, which in itself would require permission.

So how do you get permission to use music?

This is where the hard work comes in. Overall here is what you need to do:

1. Contact the owner of copyright for the materials.
2. Clarify how much, when, where, and why you want to use the material.
3. Ask for permission to use it
4. Be prepared to pay an often significant amount of money.

There is no easy way to do this. The sites below explain the process in more detail and gives links to groups who own copyrights.

http://www.copyrightkids.org/permissioninformation.htm

Though this site was created for students, this link is a fantastic resource explaining copyright and even more importantly with the addresses of the many music and movie companies that hold copyrights to materials you may want to use.

http://www.multcolib.org/guides/copyright/music_pub.html

This is an excellent article that tells you how to research the owners of music—it gives you links to look up various groups and provides advice on what to do. Once again, careful professional research and correct answers often involves a significant financial investment—not difficult for publishing companies, but often not possible for individual.

http://www.copyrightsolver.com/

This is a well-done Christian site that can help with permissions for Christian music and performances. Once again, and I hate to keep saying this, but formal permission often comes with significant costs.

So what is an individual or small church to do?

If all that seems like too much work (and for most individuals and smaller churches it is), you do have other options.

Obviously you can create our own material—

You can write songs, sing, record them. You can do original artwork. You can write articles and books. You can then use your own material however you like. If you do this, however, I've seen an interesting thing happen. Suddenly people who don't seem to care at all about using someone else's work without permission or payment become very concerned that no one use their work in the same way.

This sometimes serves as a better lesson than anything else on the importance of respecting the rights of content creators. If you do create your own work, you then are in a place to decide what you will do with the rights of it. Do you want to share it? Do you want to lock it up with licenses? Do you want to give some away and sell other parts of it? It's all up to you.

A digression: Reality Check if you create your own material

People will steal it and use it as their own and there probably isn't anything you can do about it. I know from many years of creative work the reality that other people will take and use your creations simply will happen. Briefly, I have extremely generous usage rights, but even in that I've run into some really outrageous incidents. Two stand out:

1. The first was when someone copied (no even attempt at alteration) material out of a book I wrote, then put it into a book they wrote, and tried to get me to buy the book with my material. In addition, they wanted me to recommend their book. I didn't even know how to respond to that one.

2. The second was when I saw some original marketing images I created (when I was working as a freelance designer) printed in a city magazine to advertise a church. I hadn't sold the church or granted them material to use the images. These were sketches I'd showed them for a possible outreach campaign and they had turned down my proposal saying they decided they didn't want my services. They took my sketches and used them without payment or citation. I agonized over this one and finally did nothing.

The reason I didn't do anything in either case was that ultimately because I believe all my creative gifts are from God and I turn it over to Him to deal with His misbehaving children.

If you put your material out on the Internet in any form, you lose a certain amount of control over it and realistically, if your "rights" are violated, you probably don't have the money to do anything about it. I did not write this digression to be cynical, but you don't want to be overly idealistic as a content creator or you'll be greatly disappointed.

Where can you get free or copyright-free sounds and music?

There is a big difference in both art and music (and any other created materials) with free, as in no cost at all or copyright-free or managed rights material, which means you can use it though you paid for it. Each source listed below or each source on my website or the ones I link to will always spell out these conditions, please always read "TERMS OF USE" and similar areas closely to understand what you are downloading, free or not and how you can use it.

You can do Google searches for any area of music or for how-tos such as ones related to "podcasting" that always include links to free or copyright free materials. Below is a list of some helpful sites to start—there are many of them on the web as any search will show you. If you have additional ones you've found useful, please put them in the comments section.

Some sites with both music and helpful information:

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com

http://www.blazeaudio.com/

http://www.musicalley.com/

Below is a list of links, for free sound and music from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU_wdIKnqjM

The link is to a video that quickly goes over the links listed below:

http://www.freesound.org
http://www.incompetech.com
http://www.soundbible.com
http://www.freeplaymusic.com (read terms of use)
http://www.freesoundtrackmusic.com
http://www.ccmixter.org
http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html

Please be aware that you need to know how to download, mix, modify and add sounds to make the most of any downloaded sound or music. Putting together your own sound tracks is challenging, but there are a lot of tutorials on the web that can help you—again do a web search for them.

Additional resources for free materials in the area of images and clipart

This website has some excellent information about and links to free images and clipart, here is one of the best ones and a good place to start:

https://www.effectivechurchcom.com/2010/08/clipart-images-articles-if-it%E2%80%99s-on-the-web-is-it-ok-to-use-it/

****VERY IMPORTANT***ALL of the material on this site that is created as a free download, PDF, or editable template only has artwork on it that I have either created, or paid for and have the rights to, or is copyright free. Many, many hours are spent searching for, modifying and making certain this artwork is legal to use. That is one of the great benefits of Effective Church Communication Membership. CLICK HERE for information about membership.