We are used to seeing churches being the parties who need to be concerned about copyright infringement. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Tennessee’s Church of God is turning the tables:

“The Church of God, a Tennessee-based organization that runs a number of mega-churches throughout the United States, has filed a lawsuit against Mandalay, IFC, Sony, and Comcast for distributing a feature film that shows a design alleged to be legally protected. The Church of God says in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in Tennessee federal court  that use of the Cross Mark by the defendants constitutes willful and deliberate commercial infringement upon its exclusive rights. The church is asking for an injunction and further monetary damages.”

While there is debate over whether or not the action is an attempt to head off the negative portrayal of churches in the films, the Church of God has a voice as to how it’s intellectual property will be used.  Remember that you can not file an infringement lawsuit without first filing for a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office. You can register your copyrights for only $85 with MySpark.

Music producer Timbaland was recently sued by Kernel Records for copyright infringement. Unfortunately for Kernel, the court never got to the point of addressing the merits of the complaint. The case was thrown out of court because Kernel had not registered the song with the U.S. Copyright office. This case highlights two issues that musicians need to keep in mind thinking about copyright registration.

Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is required to sue for infringement

Bottom line: you can’t bring an infringement lawsuit against someone unless you have registered the work in question with the U.S. Copyright Office.  In Kernel’s case, the court said:

We concluded that Plaintiff’s work met the definition of a “United States work” under 17 U.S.C. § 101(1)(C) and that, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 411(a), Plaintiff was required to register AJE prior to suing for we found that Plaintiff had not satisfied a statutory condition precedent to initiating this infringement lawsuit. Accordingly, since Plaintiff could not initiate or maintain this action, we granted summary judgment for Defendants.

Or put another way: “the plaintiff didn’t register the copyright, so we find for the defendant”.

Foreign copyright owners need to register too…in some cases

What makes the Kernel case particularly interesting is that the court also established that even foreign copyright owners must register with the U.S. Copyright Office if the work is initially published online. Works that are first published outside of the U.S. do not need to register with the Copyright Office to pursue an infringement case. The Kernel case establishes that publishing a song online is the same as publishing concurrently in the U.S. (You can read a detailed analysis of the case at Copyhype.)

Registering your copyright is easy with MySpark

Registering with the U.S. Copyright Office can be confusing and time consuming.  Developed in partnership with the U.S. Copyright Office, MySpark is a copyright registration service that gets your song registered quickly and easily for $85. Protect your rights and register your copyrighted works with MySpark.

Why should I register my song with the U.S. Copyright Office? This is a very common question among many musicians. There are several good answers and a recent case involving John Legend and Kanye West provides a good example of why copyright registration is important to protect your songs.

“John Legend, Kanye West’s G.O.O.D Music Accused Of Stealing ‘Maxine’s Interlude’”

AllHipHop.com is reporting that a songwriter is suing G.O.O.D. Music, claiming that “John Legend stole the track “Maxine’s Interlude,” from his 2006 album platinum-plus album Once Again.”:

Songwriter Anthony Stokes filed the lawsuit in United States District Court, in the District of New Jersey on July 5th. The lawsuit claims that Stokes was a student at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, when he wrote a song titled “Where Are You Now.” He registered the composition with the United States Copyright Office in October of 2004, according to the complaint. Several days before he registered the copyright for his song, Stokes claims he attended a sold-out “Homecoming Concert” that featured John legend at UNC. After the concert was over, John Legend hosted an autograph signing session, where Stokes was afforded the opportunity to personally meet the world famous R&B singer.

Let’s look at why copyright registration is important in this example.

You can’t file an infringement lawsuit without a copyright registration.

In order to file a copyright infringement claim, the work in question must first be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. The lawsuit would not even be possible if Mr. Stokes had not filed a copyright on his song.

Copyright registration establishes a timeline of creation

Notice that Stokes registered his copyright in October of 2004. This establishes a legal date of creation and ownership prior to the release of Mr. Legend’s album in 2006. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, the copyright on Legend’s version was not filed until 2006. As a result, Stokes has established that his copyright rights predate those of the defendant. If Stokes can prove that his song was indeed used in Legend’s album, his case will be strengthened by his copyright registration.

Copyright registration is easier than ever

MySpark was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Copyright office and it makes copyright registrations simple. Even more importantly,  MySpark helps you register your copyright properly to best protect your rights. Click here to start your copyright registration now.

Podcasting is a term thrown around in many church creative circles, but if you ask five different church staff members “what is a podcast”, you would likely get five different answers. Let’s walk through the basics of what podcasts are and why your church should care about them.

Just a bunch of media files…with a twist

In short, a podcast is a collection of audio or video files that are made available on a regular basis. What makes a podcast different than any other bunch of files is that they are distributed through a special piece of software on the listener’s computer that downloads them automatically and makes them easy to play back. The most common software for managing podcasts is iTunes, through which consumers can discover and subscribe to podcasts.

Podcasting,webcasting, what’s the difference ?

Lots of folks confuse podcasting and webcasting. With webcasting (also known as streaming), the files are delivered to the listener’s computer or phone bit by bit. While this allows playback without downloading of the file, it also prevents the downloading of the file. This also means that the listener must be connected to the internet to listen to the playback.

With podcasting, the files are downloaded to the listener’s computer , phone, or music device. The listener can then play back the podcast without internet connectivity ( in the car, in the yard, etc.) The playback experience of podcasts is usually superior, as there is not pauses due to internet “slowness”. In addition, streaming files are usually very compressed to minimize these pauses, so the audio quality is usually inferior to podcasts.

Why should my church podcast?

Podcasting just provides one more method for reaching out to your congregation and the broader community. There are also some unique characteristics of podcasting that allow for a different experience than streaming. Most importantly is the context of the listener or viewer. While most streaming content is consumed at a computer, podcasts are generally played back through a smartphone or music device. As a result, streaming tends to be a shorter, lower attention span activity, while podcasting tends to be a longer activity, as people are listening to the podcast while driving, in a plane, working, etc.

Podcasting also allows churches to easily mix all kinds of segments into one podcast: sermons, worship services, concert recordings, testimonials, announcements. All they need to do is record all of the indiviual files and upload them to play back in the proper sequence.

Podcasting and copyright

A few things to keep in mind when podcasting in regards to copyright. First, if you are going to be including performances of copyrighted music in your podcast, you need to get a mechanical license for each song you intend to use. Limelight provides a simple and inexpensive way for churches to get mechanical licenses for their podcasts.

If you include copyrighted recordings of songs, you need a mechanical licenses AND a master recording license. You will need to contact the owner of the recording directly for each recording you wish to use, as there is no centralized service to do this. You can still get the mechanical license for these tracks through Limelight.

	Limelight makes it easy for churches to use copyrighted songs.
Click here to get permission to use songs now

Churches have been distributing CDs of worship services for ages. They are distributed to shut-ins, regulars who missed a serviced and to congregation members to share with friends and family.  Many churches even use these CDs as a fund-raising opportunity , selling them for a nominal fee. Efficient disc duplicators have broguht the price of CD creation and distribution down to amazingly low level.  That said, even the low price of CDs can be beat by the even lower price of digital downloads. In addition, digital downloads have become the medium of choice for many congregation members.

So how do copyrights work with digital downloads? In the exact same way that they apply to CDs. Just as when you are making a CD, when you make a downloads you need to get a mechanical license for each song for which you want to use. The mechanical license covers the song composition and the royalties go to the owner of the composition (usually the songwriter and/or the publisher). The royalty rate for mechanical licenses have been set by the U.S. Congress at 9.1 cents per song per download. The simplest method for getting a mechanical license is the Limelight service operated by Rightsflow. With Limelight, you can get mechanical licenses for as low as low as $10 each.

The mechanical license covers the song composition, but what if you are using a recording such as a click track? You will also need to get a master recording license for each recording you wish to use. Unlike the mechanical license which is compulsory, the master recording license can be denied by the recording’s owner. As of now, there is no standardized service for obtaining master recording licenses, so you will need to reach out to each owner individually. Because obtaining master recording licenses is so much more difficult than obtaining mechanical licenses, many churches choose to only make downloads available that do not involve copyrighted master recordings.

	Limelight makes it easy for churches to use copyrighted songs.
Click here to get permission to use songs now

Company moves to protect trademark

Many folks believe that corporations are unwilling to go after churches for intellectual property violations, in large part because of the potential for bad PR. In many cases that is true, but a recent case in Kansas City provides evidence to the contrary. It seems that a church there calls itself the International House of Prayer. Well that didn’t sit well with the International House of Pancakes, and they filed a lawsuit earlier this year, contending that “the prayer organization uses the IHOP acronym to the confusion of consumers and intentionally borrows off the strength of the restaurant’s brand and federal trademark rights.”

Will the lawsuit end up being a public relations disaster for IHOP (the pancake house)? Who knows. The important lesson for churches is that corporations will not hesitate to defend their intellectual property, even if that means taking a church to court. In today’s world, churches receive little special consideration.

	Limelight makes it easy for churches to use copyrighted songs.
Click here to get permission to use songs now

The UPC (Universal Product Code, aka a bar code) is a number string attached to most physical goods and is issued by the Uniform Code Council. A UPC is not required in order to secure a mechanical license via Limelight.

	Limelight makes it easy for churches to use copyrighted songs.
Click here to get permission to use songs now

These would all likely constitute a “derivative work” and require direct permission from the copyright owner. There are exceptions to this (such as parody or any “fair use” provisions). We advise consulting a lawyer if you are unsure about whether the lyric change constitutes fair use.

	Limelight makes it easy for churches to use copyrighted songs.
Click here to get permission to use songs now

“Fair Use” is the unlicensed use of copyrighted material and is strictly limited (i.e. parody of a specific work, news reports, judicial proceedings, etc.).  Per the U.S. Copyright Office, “The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission.  When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of fair use would clearly apply to the situation. The Copyright Office can neither determine if a certain use may be considered fair nor advise on possible copyright violations. If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney.

	Limelight makes it easy for churches to use copyrighted songs.
Click here to get permission to use songs now