Posted by Janie Mehaffey
First about the presenters: Matt Schantz is oddly hilarious and sincere for a lawyer. Ami Williams is so stinkin' sweet; I have no doubt she completely charms the staff at Southland into WANTING to adhere to Copyright. They were both sensational.
Now for the take-aways:
• Copyright protects the work of the “author” . . . keeps it in its original form and for its original intent and ensures that the author is compensated sufficiently for his work and talent.
• A lot of churches think the “Fair Use” clause covers their blatant use of copyrighted materials . . . it doesn’t.
• The worship exemption allows for performing and displaying copyrighted work in worship services. All other uses of copyrighted work (such as printing song lyrics, showing movie clips, etc.) can be covered by purchased licenses, such as CCLI, SWANK, ASCAP, etc. See Ami’s notes for a list of these resources.
• Trademarks are not as protected as Copyright. A logo or theme e.g., doing a sermon series based on “Lost” or “Extreme Home Makeover,” can be morphed and used since the goods and services provided by the church are not related to that of the TV show.
• Working with staff – educate don’t frustrate! Don’t tell staff they “can’t do that because it infringes copyright." Tell them, “Let’s see how we can get the proper permission to make that happen." Of course, they need to learn that this can happen a lot better if they allow for the time to make it happen.
For complete notes from both presenters, see related post.
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