COPYRIGHT
Written Material and Sound recordings
The copying of written, aural, or visual material is illegal, whether by photocopying, duplicating or reproducing by hand on to paper, overhead projection transparencies, and so on, or on to video or audio tape, unless the author or publisher has expressly given permission, or the original is exempted from copyright protection. It is also illegal to give a public performance of music or drama, or take a recording thereof without obtaining permission of the copyright holder.
COPYRIGHT LAW
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has tidied up much previously vague or disputable areas of legislation. The law of copyright normally protects written, drawn, musical and photographic material for up to 50 years from the end of the year of the author’s death, or for 50 years if published by a corporate body, or from first recording. Design and typography are copyright for 25 years. Copyright law covers material stored in any form and therefore applies to liturgy and the Bible, hymns and songs, music and drama, whether stored on paper, audio or video tape or disk, unless composed long enough ago to have passed out of copyright protection and into the ‘public domain’. Although this applies to many older hymns (unless a new arrangement), the typography of a hymn book published within the last 25 years is under copyright and may not be photocopied. The Book of Common Prayer and the King James Version of the Bible have permanent Crown copyright.
Authors are given the protection of copyright so as to provide them with royalty income from their creativity and to preserve their authentic work. The owner of the copyright can obtain an injunction to restrain infringement, and seek damages. Under the 1988 Act a person guilty of infringement can be prosecuted.
An organiser (e.g. an incumbent or PCC) wishing to copy material, play music in public or record music (including on to video tape) must obtain the copyright holder’s permission before doing so. The latter may make a royalty charge, although in many cases it is waived for acts of worship; however, permission must still be obtained.
Clergy and any others who unwittingly allow an infringement of copyright by third parties are themselves at risk of being sued for infringement if they have authorised it. The following suggestions are made to help incumbents and PCCs understand the law, but the compilers of these notes cannot take any responsibility of the advice given.
BIBLICAL AND LITURGICAL TEXTS
Liturgical texts of the Church of England are protected by copyright. Permission to reproduce the Book of Common Prayer should be sought from Eyre and Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd., North Way, Andover, Hants SP11 5BE. The following texts are property of the Central Board of Finance, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ –
Common Worship (including Initiation and Pastoral Services)
Series 1 (Marriage and Burial)
Series 2 (Baptism and Confirmation)
Lent, Holy Week, Easter Services and Prayers
The Collects (traditional language)
The CBF has agreed that permission need not be sought to copy any of the above (or extracts therefrom) provided that copies are not to be sold, that ownership of the copyright is acknowledged on each copy, that the name of the church or institution (and the date, if for a single occasion) appears on the front, and (in the case of repeated use) the number of copies does not exceed 500. Permission to make other reproductions should be sought from the Copyright Administrator at the CBF, who can also provide a useful booklet of Guidelines on the Local Use of Liturgical Texts. A Service for Remembrance Sunday is owned by SPCK, Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone Road, London NW1 4DU, to whom application for permission to copy should be made.
The Liturgical Commission has produced a pamphlet A Guide to Liturgical Copyright, which is produced by Church house Publishing.
Bible passages and psalms which are part of a liturgical text may be reproduced under the permission given by the CBF (see above). Owners of copyright in Bible versions are as follows:
AV Eyre and Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd., North Way, Andover, Hants SP11 5BE.
RSV The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, Division of Education and Ministry, 475 Riverside Drive, New York NY10115, USA; application is not required for up to 1000 verses or less than a full book, providing copyright is acknowledged.
NEB Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU
REB Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP and Cambridge University Press.
JB & NJB Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, 89 Lillie Road, London SW6 1UD;
& application is not required for up to 500 words, providing copyright is
acknowledged.
GNB The Bible Society, Stonehill Green, Westlea, Swindon SN5 7DG; application is not required for up to 250 verses providing the GNB text forms less than 20% of the whole and copyright is acknowledged.
NIV Hodder and Stoughton Religious Books, 47 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP; application is not required for up to 1000 verses providing the NIV text forms less than 50% of the whole book and copyright is acknowledged.
Liturgical Psalter
Collins Liturgical Publications, 8 Grafton Street, London W1X 3LA; application is not required for up to five psalms, providing copyright is acknowledged.
Most modern hymns and songs may not be copied without permission. If the author is contacted (via the publisher) a fee for reproduction will probably be required. To reduce the work involved two licence schemes now operate, to allow the reproduction of material for use in worship.
Christian Copyright Licensing (Europe) Ltd [CCLE], 26 Gildredge Road, Eastbourne, Sussex BN21 4JA (01323 417711), www.ccli.co.uk, offers a licence scheme allowing the reproduction of a wide range of hymns and songs, especially those of modern hymn-writers. A licence holder may also make recordings, providing that no charge is made, that acknowledgement is given, and that they are used unaltered and only in acts of worship. An annual fee in payable, based on the size of the regular congregation, and the church has to submit an annual return of the hymns reproduced, so that the fee can be allocated to those writers whose work has been reproduced.
Calamus, 30 North Terrace, Mildenhall, Suffolk, IP28 7AB (01638 716579), offers a similar licence covering works written primarily for the Roman Catholic liturgy, but actually in use across a wide range of churches today. Once again, there is an annual fee, based on the size of the regular congregation, with quarterly return of the material used under the licence.
An important point to remember is that neither licence gives blanket permission to reproduce hymns – you must check that each item you intend to reproduce is actually covered by a licence that you hold. For example, the words of ‘Morning has broken’ are not covered by either scheme, and permission to reproduce this must therefore be obtained direct from the copyright holder.
CCLE recently extended its scheme to include a Music Reproduction Licence, which allows churches to make copies of the music of certain hymns in addition to its licence to reproduce the words. The number of hymns covered is more limited, since it is assumed that normally people will be expected to buy copies of sheet music where available. A separate fee is charged on the same basis as the main CCLE licence fee and an annual return is required of the music copies made.
The Calamus licence allows reproduction of the melody line of hymns, which can be useful for inclusion in service sheets, but it does not permit the harmony to be copied. It also covers reproduction of the vocal harmony and guitar chords of Taizé refrains, and churches which do not use the main Calamus licence can obtain a separate licence for Taizé only. However, neither licence extends to the reproduction of choral arrangements nor cantor parts.
Many composers of modern musical works are members of the Mechanical – Copyright Protection Society, Elgar House, 41 Streatham High Road, London SW16 1EF, who sell a Miscellaneous Recording Licence to allow any of its members’ works to be recorded, provided the number of recordings are limited and are not sold. The MCPS also has a vast index of songs and may be able to locate copyright holders (Tel 020 8769 4400).
Recorded music which is under copyright may not be played in a public place (which includes a church) without permission, nor can it be used to dub a video which is played in public. Many authors, composers and publishers are members of the Performing Rights Society Ltd, 29/33 Berners Street, London W1P 4AA (020 7306 4700) www.prs.co.uk, which administers applications to perform copyright material on their behalf. Although it is always necessary to obtain a licence, the PRS does not usually make a charge for performances during an act of worship. “Charity” performances may also be given a free licence. An annual “blanket” licence is available for other performances, although individual permits may prove cheaper where the performance of copyright music is only very occasional. CCLE has recently introduced a PRS Church Licence, which may prove more cost-effective and easier to administer.
If background music is all that is needed, it is possible to buy records and tapes which are sold for public playing and for which no further permission is necessary.
DRAMA
Drama scripts may not be photocopied, nor may they be performed in public without permission of the copyright holders. Many of the recently published books of Christian sketches include directions in the foreword as to how permission may be obtained. Normally it is expected that additional books will be purchased for members of the cast and permission to perform can be obtained by sending a small fee to an address given in the book.
VIDEO RECORDING
Video taping church services involves the recording of the liturgy, the hymns and the music. A special licence is required before any service which includes copyright material can be video recorded. Most requests will relate to weddings. Strictly it is up to the wedding couple to arrange the licence, but the church could well be liable if they fail to do so. It is therefore in the church’s interest to ensure that the rules are followed. CCLE will usually be able to provide a suitable licence. The same rules apply regardless of whether the video is a professional recording or one made by family and friends.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Where a photograph is commissioned from a freelance or commercial photographer the copyright belongs to the photographer (or his or her employer) unless there is an agreement in writing to the contrary.
A person who commissions a photograph for private or domestic purposes has the right not to have copies of the photographs issued to the public even if he or she does not own the copyright. Thus a wedding photo commissioned by the bridegroom cannot be passed to the media later unless he and the photographer both agree.
DRAWINGS
Cartoons, graphics and other items drawn by hand, or created by other means to the same effect, are copyright. The use of cartoons in church magazines is widespread, but copyright permission should be sought from the publication in which it appeared in the first instance. Copyright may be owned by the publisher or the artist. There may be a case to be made for using a drawing or cartoon as an ‘example of’ for the purposes of review or criticism, provided there is sufficient acknowledgement of the work and its author.
There are some publications which allow free use of cartoon and graphic material. Palm Tree Press, Rattlesden, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP30 0SZ publish religious and church material for free use. Church News Service, 37b New Cavendish Street, London W1M 8JR also provide monthly off-the-peg written and drawn material for a small subscription.
SERMONS
Under the 1988 Act, copyright is conferred for the first time on the spoken words, even if they are not from a script, as soon as they are recorded, with or without the speaker’s permission. The speaker, as the author of a literary work, will own the copyright on the words. However, it is open to the courts to decide how much of the speech or sermon could be reproduced before it could be ‘substantial’ and therefore infringe copyright. And it also depends on whether the speaker prohibited the making or use of the record beforehand. There is no copyright on facts conveyed in a speaker’s words!