International Copyright Part II: from a “Dead Composer”
I’m dead. Not spiritually, but physically. At least this is what a Christian record company told an artist wanting to contact the other writer and myself to get permission to use our song “Without Love… We Have Nothing.”
by James Michael Stevens
Posted: Monday, June 18, 2007, 11:11 (BST)
I’m dead. Not spiritually, but physically. At least this is what a Christian record company told an artist wanting to contact the other writer and myself to get permission to use our song “Without Love… We Have Nothing.” The record company said, “Unfortunately, the composers have been dead a long time, however, we will be happy to give you a license and collect your royalties.” This letter was personally translated to me in my office in Nashville. Needless to say, the other writer and I were very surprised to hear of our demise.
There was a lot of feedback on my recent article regarding copyright issues as being of an international concern for Christians. Quite frankly, I was somewhat dumbfounded by some of the responses I received so I decided to share with you some of the warped logic I heard and some of my own personal experiences with Christian companies, churches and artists being a big part of the problem.
Let me share two examples from two of the world’s largest churches.
1. In January of 2006, I came across a video of our song being performed in a mega church. It was with a choir of a couple hundred, a full orchestra, and a duet singing it with thousands present. It was a wonderful arrangement and professionally done. I was so excited to hear it. I e-mailed the church to express my appreciation and to request a copy of the music. Although I never heard back from them, the video was removed from their website the next day even though every other performance of all their many choirs from the last several years remain.
2. The second example is of another church that has thousands in attendance every Sunday and which may indeed be the world’s largest. The church was selling about 20 different CDs on the church’s website that contained our song. I contacted them to see if I could get some copies of the CDs and to make them aware that all of them had been done without permission, without our knowledge and without paying royalties. Since the church was merely selling them and were not the record producers, I thought they would want to know since their church was one of the world’s best known with one of the most famous pastors of all time. The next day, someone went on the church’s website and removed the title of our song from the song list of each of the CDs. Now understand that they were still selling the CDs, and our song was still on each of them, they just removed our title from the list so no one would know.
When you have Christian record companies and the world’s largest churches taking actions like this, it is disappointing to say the least!
Now let me share some of the reasoning that Christians gave for illegal copying in response to my article:
One person said that the fault of the illegal copying was with the greedy record companies, because the record companies charged too much for their CDs. Since they charged “too much,” then this made it OK for the music to be copied without permission. Hey, if they cost too much, don’t buy them. Perhaps some in the record industry would like to give their input, but my guess is that they actually lose money on many if not the majority of releases.
Have your say on this article
The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Sunday, July 1, 2007, 11:37 (BST)
Thanks so much for your article about how Christians should respect copyright laws. I think it is a huge issue today. I was just wondering what people's views were on Christians going on the internet and watching/listening to multimedia that has been illegally uploaded? At the risk of sounding legalistic- I know it's not the Christian who uploaded the material but in effect they're saying "it's okay" by accessing it anyway?
Veronica, Sydney, Australia
Added: Tuesday, June 19, 2007, 18:27 (BST)
Great article! I just stumbled across part 2 of this article while browsing around the Internet - guess I'll have to go back and read part 1!
Speaking as a Christian - and as an artist married to a musician - I have to say I'm with you 100%. People - even Christians, sadly - seem to think that stealing is OK as long as it's "just" music or art. Or maybe they figure it's OK as long as it's easy to do?
If I were a baker, and you walked into my store and stole a loaf of bread I had made, you'd know you were stealing. When you make an illegal copy of someone's song, or of someone's artwork, you are also stealing.
Why is it that we seem to think that an accountant has a right to make a living from his math skills, and a farmer has a right to make a living selling the produce he grows, but an artist or a musician doesn't have a right to make a living from his or her skills and talents? I guess maybe we value money and food more than we do music and art.
The saddest note of all, to me, is that we Christians are just as guilty of this theft of others' skills and talents - and just as obtuse in maintaining that it doesn't matter.
Jeri Woods
Dustwood Media
Jeri-Lynn Woods, Trail, BC, Canada
Added: Tuesday, June 19, 2007, 1:18 (BST)
I have to agree completely with this article. Intellectual theft is theft no matter what. If it's breaking a copyright LAW, then let's go to the bible where it tells us to follow the LAWS in our land! We as Christians also have to respect mans laws, or else how can we truly be a light in the darkness?
I'm guilty of in the past downloading copyrighted music, or making a mix tape for a friend. Yet I know that what I did was wrong, and repented of it. While my music collection is my own, and I'm not able to often buy CD's due to their price, I still have the Christian Radio stations in my area to listen to.
Martin R. Oakley, Gwinn, Michigan
