CHRISTIANS AND THE COPYRIGHT LAW

�by Jack Decker

 

We had a visitor at our church the other night. Perhaps this man

has visited your church as well. When one of our ushers greeted him before

the service and inquired as to this man's line of work, he would only say

that he "travelled a lot." He sat through the entire service, THEN revealed

that he had attended only to observe our church for for possible

violations of the copyright law.

You may not have realized it, but most Christian songs are

copyrighted. If you reproduce them without the permission of the copyright

owner, you have broken the copyright law and are subject to a fine. One

church in Chicago apparently was fined $5,000 for copyright violations.

The most common copyright violation is in the area of music intended

for use of the congregation. Many churches use mimeographed song sheets

or use an overhead projector to project a handwritten transparency of the

song, both of which are illegal (it's legal to use a projector but

only if the transparencies you use are obtained from or approved by the

copyright holder).

Though most Christians would agree that we should not break the law of

the land, one has to wonder about a law that can have the effect of

inhibiting men from singing praises to God, or even from understanding the

Bible. The Bible? Yes, in case you didn't realize it, all modern

English-language versions of the Bible are copyrighted. Only the King

James version of the Bible is not copyrighted. Thus, you cannot freely

reprint portions of the word of God (in present-day English) without first

securing permission from the copyright owner (you CAN quote small portions of

text under a doctrine of law called "fair use", but you couldn't

legally reproduce, say, the entire Gospel of John to give away as an

evangelistic aid).

Of course, it's as likely as not that a copyright owner will NOT give

you permission to reprint. Rather, they'll offer to SELL you copies of

whatever you need, and will make a profit in the process. Thus, they take

the word of God, or a song dedicated to God, and demand that men pay

them before it can be used.

This is an issue that you hardly ever see discussed by anyone.

Most of the big-time evangelists have books, records, and taped sermons,

all of which are copyrighted. Thus, they have a financial incentive not to

speak out against copyrights. I'm not saying that all of these men

of God are deliberately witholding this from the Christian population

(indeed, they may never have given the issue any thought at all, since

Christians have been using copyrights for so long) but maybe now is the time

to examine the issue, in light of recent attempts to strengthen the

protection offered by the copyright law in the face of new technology

(copying machines, tape duplicators, etc.).

Have you ever heard a Christian performer say "the Lord gave me this

song?" Well, if that's true, then why did that performer probably apply for

a copyright on it before the ink was dry on the paper? Did God give the

performer that song as a means of praise and worship to Him, or so that

the performer could profit by it? It would seem that if the Lord freely gives

a song or a sermon to someone to share with God's people, that person has

no business putting a price on it!

There are three categories of material that I think should NOT be

copyrighted. One is the word of God itself, the Bible. Copyrighting the

Bible restricts its use and forces men to pay other men for what rightfully

belongs to God. There should NEVER be any restrictions on free distribution

of the word of God.

The second category is a song or poem given by God to praise and

glorify God. People should not have to pay other men in order to praise

God together in an orderly manner, and if the Lord truly inspired the

songwriter, doesn't ownership of the song really belong to God anyway?

The final category is anything given by God to edify men or instruct

men in the ways of God. In other words, if God directs an author to deliver

some message of importance to Christians, it should not be hindered by

copyright restrictions.

There are a couple of objections that people usually raise to the

above. One is that "the laborer is worthy of his hire", and that anyone

who does work for God deserves to be compensated for it. The other is that

copyright protection is needed to prevent others (non-Christians) from

stealing all or part of the work and possibly perverting it (using the melody

of a Christian song with words that promote sensual values, for example).

The first objection is easily answered if we consider the amount of

actual effort that is put into writing a song or sermon compared to the

possible returns that can be extorted through the use of the copyright. Many

songwriters or sermon writers can complete a work in a day or two

(especially if the Lord really gave them the work, as is often claimed) and

rarely does it take more than a week or two. How much do you make working a

week or two at your job? Yet that work may net the writer multiple

thousands of dollars in copyright-imposed royalties, thus forcing people to

pay much more than the value of the time involved. And the point remains that

if God truly inspired the work, authorship belongs to God and the earthly

vessel that he uses should be trusting God, not the copyright law, to supply

his needs (it should also be pointed out that the phrase "the laborer is

worthy of his hire" was used by Paul, who was talking about the "elders that

rule well ... especially those who labor in the word and doctrine". See

I Timothy 5:17-18. But that did not mean that they were to charge admission

to their sermons! Rather, it meant that they were worthy to receive whatever

offerings the people might be led to give them).

Of course, God may assist a writer with a book or some other work that

requires lengthy preparation and possibly a real expenditure of money for

research. In that case I would say it is between God and that man

whether to copyright the book or other work, but I think that if the work is

truly one that will be helpful to God's people, it would be better to

leave it uncopyrighted. It would be better to offer such a work on a free

will or a donation basis and let God take care that the author receives

just compensation. But for someone whose faith is weak (that somehow cannot

fully trust God to take care that they are not "cheated"), I cannot with

full conviction say that it is a sin for them to copyright their book.

I can't see the original authors of the books of the bible

copyrighting and charging others for what they wrote. But I can't see

Paul giving away all of the tents that he made, either. Some say that all

ideas originate from God, and the work of our hands is the only thing we

are entitled to be compensated for. This, again, brings us back to the

question of how much research or other real "work" was required to

produce the work in question, and whether we are willing to trust God,

rather than man, to see that we are compensated properly for that work.

As for the thought that the work may be "stolen" by a non-Christian,

such an argument betrays a lack of trust in God. If the work is used in

its original form, it may reach people who would not see or hear it otherwise

and inspire them to turn to God - and the fact that anyone can use it

without making royalty payments may assure it a much wider distribution than

it would otherwise have. And if the work is perverted by someone, God is

powerful and is able to handle the situation! It may be that God has a reason

for allowing that to happen, and it may be that God will use that work to

draw the wrongdoer to Him. But if there is any punishment to be meted out,

remember that God says, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for

God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge, I will repay,' says

the Lord." (Romans 12:19)

� But probably the best reason for not using copyright protection

is that it may put the copyright owner into the position of violating

God's law. You see, in order to retain copyright protection, a copyright

owner has to enforce it against any known violators or the protection is lost.

What that means is that if a violation is discovered, the violator must be

forced to pay for the infringement, or be sued in court to recover

actual and punitive damages. Now, what happens if the violator is a

Christian, but either cannot or will not pay up? You have to take him to a

court of law, before worldly judges. This is very strongly and

specifically prohibited in I Corinthians 6, verses 1-8. These verses should

be required reading for any Christian that is considering the use of

Copyright protection.

The only case in which I would say that it MAY be all right for a

Christian to obtain copyright protection (and I'm not even fully convinced

of this in my own mind) is when that work in question is intended for the

secular market (i.e. non-Christians) and is not a Christian work (for example,

if a Christian writes a book about how to build a backyard barbecue, it would

probably be okay to copyright it). The reason for this is that the most

likely violators would be worldly people. However, even in this case, the

question remains of what to do if a copyright violator professes to be a

Christian. You'd have to trust God for wisdom at that time, because there's

simply no way you can justify violating God's law to satisfy man's.

As I have said, I doubt that you'll hear this preached from many

pulpits, especially in light of the "success syndrome" that has crept into

many churches (the book "The Seduction of Christianity" by Dave Hunt and

T.A. McMahon does a good job of exposing this heresy). And you won't see

many books published on the subject, since it would not be in the self-

interest of many publishers to do so. I'd love to see a book publisher decide

to really trust God for their income, and release some books without copyright

notices! And the Christian music industry will probably continue to

send Judases into our midst, hoping to catch us in copyright violations and

then forcing us to take God's money, which was given in tithes and

offerings, and use it to pay them and the courts for their evil deeds. It's

about time that some Christian songwriters said "enough!" to this and

started placing some of their music in the public domain, so that it

could be freely used by God's people to praise Him.

I'd like to hear any comments that others may have on this subject,

pro or con, or any scriptures that the Lord may give you that seem to be

applicable to this discussion. Please feel free to drop me a line with your

thoughts.

As you might expect, THIS article is released to the public domain for

the Glory of God, and may be freely reprinted!

�Jack Decker

�1804 West 18th Street # 155

�Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan 49783-1268

Sysops Note:

This is our new discussion topic. Jack sent me this article and

suggested that I use it as a discussion topic. What I am going to do is

any replies posted in the Discussion Topic message base, will be printed

out and sent to Jack. As you know Jack lives in Sault Ste. Marie, and that is

long distance for him. If you would, please post all your comments and

replies in the Discussion Topic message base. Please post them to

ALL so everyone may benefit. Thanks to Jack for a interesting topic.

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