Media Outreach

Apologies to you, my loyal reader(s), for my lack of posting last week. Most unfortunately, I was out with a rather nasty cold that prevented me from doing anything other than staring at the ceiling, wondering not so much what I was going to write about, but rather if I had enough tissues to make it through the week. Since so many of you have written me in the past, saying that the implied dulcet tones of my blog posts are what sustain you during the week, I shall endeavor to never miss another week’s posting, until such time as Mr. Carrano deems my posts to no longer be relevant or entertaining… whichever comes first.

Turning our attention back to my previous 2 posts, we’ve been discussing copyrights and their effect on the church world. I’ve spent a lot of time pointing fingers at what can and cannot be legally done in regards to content. However, one thing that I have not addressed is the question that many of you might be wondering; “If I use copyrighted material on my website / in my church service… what will happen to me?” The answer, quite honestly, is probably nothing. While the penalties for copyright infringement can be unwaveringly severe, the honest truth is that most people who infringe on other people’s work are not caught, and therefore pay no consequences. However, I personally do not accept the notion that just because you probably won’t get caught, it’s ok to use intellectual property that does not belong to you. The fact is that intellectual property theft is just that… theft. No matter how good your intentions are, it’s still wrong to take what isn’t yours.

In my past articles, I’ve mentioned a few resources that you can utilize to help obtain the rights to copyrighted materials. Another such resource presented itself to me a couple weeks ago, which is the education center at Christian Copyright Solutions. In addition to the services they offer, Christian Copyright Solutions has put together an excellent resource library on many different copyright issues, specifically aimed at helping churches.

In the event that all the different resources I’ve mentioned fail to provide you with an answer on how you can gain the rights to a specific image, or piece of music, then there is one other avenue that can be explored. Simply ask the person who owns the rights to the item you wish to use. I’ve found that a lot of people are happy to allow their work to be used to help benefit the church.  By simply asking for permission, you afford the person who owns the work the chance to say yes or no, for which a fairer and more just solution is not possible.

This will conclude the discussion on copyright issues in the church. I sincerely hope that this series of posts has been educational without being accusatory. As I have mentioned before, it is not my intent to point fingers or cast dispersions upon anyone, but to educate people on issues that many have not even taken into consideration when working on the content for their website. By providing this information to the public, it is my hope that the choices you make when creating website content are not only beneficial to your church, but are morally justifiable as well.

Photo by: MikeBlogs