Christians Against Copyright

Recently a shop worker in a village near where I live received a nasty shock from PRS for Music. She has already had to switch off her beloved radio since she can’t afford the PRS license to play the radio in the shop, but now she has been warned that she is not allowed to sing to herself while working. She has since received an apology for this outrageous behaviour, but the problem with PRS for music still remains.

The full story is here.

Arguments against “double-dipping” notwithstanding, is it really appropriate for Christian artists to be represented by such a dubious organisation?

The copyright on most commercial recordings states that broadcasting is not allowed.

Christians are missing a HUGE opportunity for evangelism here. If shops are not allowed to broadcast commercial music then we need to release our work in such a way that shops ARE allowed to broadcast Christian music.

RECORD is a magazine for the Seventh Day Adventist church in Australia and New Zealand.

Jared Henley has had an article on Christians and Copyright published in the July 2009 edition.

You can get a pdf of the magazine here.

A special “Hello” to all those who are visiting after seeing me wearing my Christians Against Copyright T-Shirt at CLAN gathering.

For those unfamiliar, CLAN is a week of preaching, teaching, worship and fun held annually in St. Andrews in Scotland.

If you were there, and wanted to ask me what christiansagainstcopyright.org was about, why didn’t you?

I had a couple of people ask me, but no controversial discussions.

Ah well, there’s always Worship Central in October.

I’ve been searching google using the words christian copyright. Most of the pages are about CCLI, but a few have turned up articles that have caused me to respond.

The first one is at http://www.praisecharts.com/live/articles/576/1/Every-Church-Needs-a-Copyright-Cop/Page1.html
The author reckons that if churches are fully copyright compliant then they will “shine their light to the world”. I posted a comment stating that while churches should be fully copyright compliant, a better way to “shine the light” would be for artists to have a more sharing attitude with their works. We’ll see if the moderators let my comment through.

Secondly I discovered this alarming page:
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=2413 claiming that a Christian website owner has been overly proprietorial with his copyrights. I contacted the website owner to ask about copyright issues, and to ask him to consider if his attitude is an appropriate one. I’ll post the reply if I receive one.

CCLI UK have a “Copyright Links” page which includes links to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 and also to FAST (of all places). I have asked them via their contact form if they would be willing to add http://www.christiansagainstcopyright.org to that page. I’ll post their reply if it arrives.

If you have not noticed already the main site has received a facelift. Have a look at http://www.christiansagainstcopyright.org and please let us know what you think in the forums.

A Christian artist can be found lamenting the sharing of unauthorised copies at http://www.copyrightsolver.com/dn2/pt/blog/default.aspx?id=25&t=Dennis-Jernigans-View-on-Burning-Copies

I have added my comments and provided a link to this website.

I’ve started a discussion on the topic over at www.hemustincrease.com.
The post can be found here.

I have been chatting with friends from church and have yet to find one who does not agree that over use of copyright is harmful to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, and showing God’s glory.

I have been pointed at a few interesting discussions on-line and have decided to join in. Here are some links to discussions at other websites where I have added my two-penn’orth on this subject.

ShareSong have a google group at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/4praise/topics where you can check out the “Christians Against Copyright” discussion.

Over at Worship Central there has been a discussion regarding the legal position of changing the words when leading worship. Check it out here.

The story regarding Christian Music on questioncopyright.org is available here.

So why bother with a blog? Well I figured that it would be a good place to chronicle my efforts in getting the word out there that restrictive copyright may not be the best way to handle works that can be used for God’s glory.

I’ll keep you posted as to forums I’m posting on, people I have chatted with, events I have attended wearing the T-shirt, and anything else that I feel is appropriate.