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 [The following article was reprinted by permission of Worship Leader magazine. For more subscription information, please go to http://www.worshipleader.com and http://www.songdiscovery.com. ]
An Insider's Guide to Movie Copyright.
Can you believe budgets for some commercials are now being measured in millions of dollars—for thirty seconds worth of film? Many feature film production budgets are now topping $75 million in costs. The recent Titanic (1997) and Dinosaur (2000) movies both topped the charts with $200 million price tags. The real story however is that most of these mind-blowing budgets are easily recovered through gross sales. Dinosaur has almost doubled its initial investment and Titanic has pulled in over $1.8 billion in returns. (Yes, that's "b” for billion.)
Heads are shaking, "My, how times have changed.” But if you adjust and normalize gross sales for inflation, Titanic is still beaten out by Gone With The Wind (1939), Star Wars (1977), The Sound of Music (1965) and E.T. (1982). And thus, a film over 60 years old is still the winner. My guess is a few of your dollars are accounted for in these gross sales, along with contributions from most of the people you live near, work, play and attend church with.
It's indisputable: television and movies have not only been one of the strongest influences on our culture, they have changed how we communicate. Now match that reality with the dose of reality Bob Briner gives the Christian community in Roaring Lambs (Zondervan, 1995): "Twenty million people go to the movies each week in America alone. Millions more see movies on television and cassettes [and now DVDs]. Only rarely do they see anything pointing them to Christ. Our fault.
Typically, but unfortunately, our response to the sacrilege of blasphemy of modern movies is to whine, demonstrate, boycott and keep score. Again, as with television, we have almost no alternatives to offer. We cannot say, "Don't watch that trash. Watch this film of a great story that is both uplifting and ennobling.' We can't say that, because we haven't produced those films in any numbers. Basically, we are saying to the 20 million who attend movies every week: "Stay home. But don't watch television, because we haven't produced anything there either.' This is not a logically defensible position.”
In the short-term, the church cannot compete. There is no momentum. It would take the annual budget of a few average-sized churches just to produce and air one average network commercial. Thankfully groups like the Biola Studio Task Force, the International Christian Visual Media Association (ICVM) and a number of other organizations are affecting change. The Studio Task Force in particular are a group of nearly 200 Christian media and entertainment professionals dedicated to helping the church understand how they can work with the media at every level to make a positive impact on popular culture.
However, that's another discussion.
In the immediate, the next best option is to use this huge archive of popular material that everyone has seen already—except this time, use it for good. There is one serious problem, however: permission.
WHAT THE LAW SAYS
By law, as well as by intent, videos that are available in stores and rental outlets throughout the United States are for home use only. The Copyright Act is pretty clear about non-home showings in that the rental or purchase of a video does not carry with it the right "to perform the copyrighted work publicly.” The bottom line: Anyone wishing to engage in non-home showings of videos must secure licenses to do so. Even innocent or inadvertent infringers are subject to substantial civil damages between $750 and $20,000.
Up until recently, this copyright law made it practically impossible for the average church to use commercial video. To show clips or full-length material in church would have required writing the studio, asking for permission and waiting weeks for a response. If they did respond and if permission was granted, it would often come with a one-time license fee costing hundreds of dollars.
Maybe you're thinking, "We don't need to bother with this. We don't show movie clips in our services.” Does your nursery sometimes play a video? How about your children's programs? What about some of your youth events? All of these instances constitute "public showings” and if you have not applied for a license or received permission in some other way, you could be breaking the law. Thankfully, Christian Video Licensing International (CVLI) has just opened a huge door for the church.
Note: Not all Producers are available in every country. Please see the Producers List for those who are available in your country.
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