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 "traveled 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 withholding 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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