Effective Church Communications

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; we can help.

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

By Leave a Comment

Loving a song doesn't give you permission to legally use it.
Loving a song doesn't give you permission to legally use it--here are the rules and resources for legal ones.

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. [Read more...]

Clipart, images, articles-if it’s on the web is it OK to use it?

By Leave a Comment

Copyright questions answered
You can find and copy any image on the web, but that does not mean you can use it. Copyright guidelines for what is right for church communicators follow.

 

Google can find anything you want—an image, a devotion, an article, a sermon. One click and you can view it; copy and paste and you capture it. But just because it’s that easy to do it, does that mean you should do it? If we want our digital lives to match the beliefs of our analog lives, as believers and servants of Jesus, the answer is no. We need to be just as careful today that we are not using something that does not rightly belong to us, just as we did in junior high school when we were taught not to plagiarise material for school papers.

To help us do that, a review of what constitutes copyright, fair use, public domain and the newer Creative Commons designations is essential. Following this brief overview and some recommendations is a list of links to the U.S. government sites and other articles that explain these issues in more detail. Yes, this is work and a challenging area that we often do not want to be bothered with—but we work for the King of Kings and Lord of Lord and we need to do all our work as honestly and legally as we know how—no matter how hard it is.

This does not apply to any material you purchase: the images, clipart, articles you may have bought for a yearly or monthly fee.

[Read more...]