Saturday, February 23, 2008

Super Bowl screenings in Church not illegal now

For those that keep up with all the issues surrounding copyright and the church, one of the biggest topics of discussion has been around showing the Super Bowl on the big screens at church. Is it OK? It's on free television, right? Well, technically, up until this announcement by the NFL Commissioner

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3256621, it has been illegal. Now, many churches have hosted Superbowl parties and unknowingly broken the law. Other churches are aware of the infringements and decided to do it anyway. Well, NO MORE!

Still, this leads to the deeper issues surrounding church copyright: what we can and cannot post on the internet or podcasts, what movie clips we show and what songs we can project or copy. It gets pretty hairy out there. CCLI licensing for worship music, CVLI for movie clips, movie screenings at church are supposed to be viewed as if you are a public venue, so you should pay royalties, etc., etc.

There simply needs to be more education about what we should and should not do. It's hard because we are in ministry, right? Should we HAVE to pay for these things if we are a "non-profit" organization? But even so, shouldn't we have integrity with how we conduct the legal side of our ministry asthe children of God? There's a million rabbit holes to go chasing here as well as many situations I am completely not smart enough to answer or clarify. Some foundations and insights can be found here:

http://www.churchca.com

I am still wading through much of this. It gets deep. But I happy to say that I try my best to be copyright compliant with as much as I know how to. What are your thoughts on the issue of the church and copyright?