By: Lisa Elliott Diehl On 8/17/2010
Topics: Worship, Technology
A church wrote me last week with this question.
"We are discussing streaming our worship services on the web. Is it true that we cannot put music on the web due to copyright laws? Can we only post our sermons?"
I didn't have the answer, but I knew where to find it. United Methodist Church of the Resurrection does a live webcast of two services every weekend. I went to Ian Beyer, technical director for COR's online campus. Here's what he said:
The license we use is called WorshipCast from Christian Copyright Solutions: http://www.copyrightsolver.com/WorshipCastLicense.aspx
What the WorshipCast License Covers:
* Your singers & musicians performances of more than 16 million non-dramatical musical works from ASCAP, BMI & SESAC catalogs
* Non-downloadable song playlists
* Live streaming of worship services & events
* Archived audio or audiovisual files
* Online song log reporting
* Education on current copyright & internet issues
* CCS compiles & submits payments & reports to ASCAP, BMI & SESAC
* Access to 24/7 online CopyrightSolver(tm) song database
What the WorshipCast License Does Not Cover
* Third party sound recordings or accompaniment tracks (any audio recording you don't own, unless you have permission from the sound recording owner).
* Download MP3 or digital audio song files (or provide for download)
* Use any copyrights other than songs on your website (such as third party videos, visual images or literary works)
* Performance of dramatic musical works
This license is for performances only, and does not cover duplication of copyrighted materials. Additional licenses may be required in accordance with applicable law.