Below you’ll find the show notes for episode 102, What Women’s Ministry Leaders Need to Know About Copyrights and Movie Licenses, from the Women’s Ministry Toolbox Podcast and YouTube channel.

Please note: This post may contain affiliate links.

What Women’s Ministry Leaders Need to Know About Copyrights and Movie Licenses

This post is part of the series Things I Wish Women’s Ministry Leaders Knew.

Today I’m tackling the tricky topic of copyrights and movie licenses. You may think this doesn’t pertain to you, but I’m here to tell you it does.

I am not a lawyer, but I am going to do my best to present this information as accurately as possible. There will be several links you’ll want to check out for more detailed information.

When I first started out as a women’s ministry leader, I knew very little about my responsibility to honor copyrights. I’m sure I made some mistakes along the way.

It wasn’t until I began writing and publishing my writing online that I took the time to understand what’s covered and how it’s covered.

If you’ve purchased any of my materials (physical books or digital products), you’ve probably noticed I include a copyright policy. An author or creator doesn’t want someone else to distribute, for free or for payment, their work in any form without permission.

I’ll start by defining our terms and conditions and I’ll wrap up with some examples and tips so you can avoid any legal action being taken against you.

I wish I were exaggerating! A couple of weeks ago, I received a letter with a copyright claim for a photo I used in a blog post. Thankfully, I obtained permission to use it so I wasn’t going to be fined or face other consequences. I had to upload the license so the case would be closed. There are entire businesses who focus on finding and fining copyright violations regardless of your motives or copyright knowledge.

What is a copyright?

Copyrights protect original works (written, digital, or otherwise) from unauthorized use.

The author or artist has the right to control the reproduction, publication, adaptation, performance, and display of the work that he or she produced. Any action that violates those rights is unlawful – whether or not it was deliberate.

The US Copyright Office states:

• Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression.
• Everyone is a copyright owner. Once you create an original work and fix it, like taking a photograph, writing a poem or blog, or recording a new song, you are the author and the owner.
• It is important to know that we are all also copyright users. When we read books, watch movies, listen to music, or use videogames or software, we are using copyright-protected works.

Source: https://www.copyright.gov/what-is-copyright/

This means even if you don’t see or can’t find a copyright symbol or statement, it’s almost certainly covered.

There is something called Fair Use that permits the limited usage of copyright materials for educational purposes. For example, you can quote from a book, show a movie clip if you’re speaking, etc. Again, I’m not a lawyer. I want to urge you to request permission, if at all possible.

For more information on Fair Use, click this link.

How long do copyrights last?

If I’m sharing pages from a book of an author that’s dead, is that okay?

Under the current law, works created on or after January 1, 1978, have a copyright term of the life of the author plus seventy years after the author’s death. 

After that time, works enter something called the public domain where they can be used without restrictions. This is one reason some people use old hymns, they are in the public domain so copyright laws aren’t an issue.

Do different rules apply to churches?

There is a religious exemption clause, but it only applies to worship services. From what I’ve read and understand, retreats and women’s ministry events are not exempt. This post on Christian Copyright Solutions that explains what is and isn’t covered in more detail.

Common Copyright Violations

Here are a few examples, not to shame anyone, but to make you aware of common copyright violations:

• Have you ever photocopied the pages of a Bible study, commentary, or book and shared them with the women in your church?
• Have you ever posted photos of pages inside of a book online?
• Have you ever printed the words to song lyrics in an event program?
• Have you ever used an image you found online for your church website, a social media post, or a women’s ministry resource?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, it’s quite possible that you violated the creator’s copyright.

What are areas to watch out for?

1. Printed materials
2. Music
3. Multi-media (videos, TV show clips, movie clips, and movie showings)

I found a good checklist for churches here, you might find helpful.

My best advice to you is to talk with the communications team or worship leader at your church. They should know what licenses your church has (such as the CCLI for music and CVLI for video) and whether or not you are covered. They’ll also be able to explain what copyright information you need to include on slides and in printed materials so you’re compliant.

What about movies?

If you want to host a movie night or show a comedy video at your next retreat, you need to make sure you have a license to do so. Churches aren’t exempt from ligation. Your church probably already has a CVLI license, but you need to make sure what you want to show is covered by that license.

Many Christian films include information about licensing on their movie’s webpage. It’s worth checking out. The cost to obtain a license to show a Christian film is usually reasonable.

3 Copyright Tips Specific to Women’s Ministry

There are three more things related to copyrights I want to touch on that you will likely encounter in women’s ministry.

1.The use of scripture verses.

The use of scripture in printed materials, such a devotional or conference program, must abide by the publisher’s copyright. Some publishers are very strict about usage in and on materials especially for resale or those using a large number of scripture verses.

You can search for the translation with the word copyright for details. Here is the copyright page for the ESV translation.

2. The use of quotes.

Please be sure you give credit when you use a quote. And choose your quotes carefully. A quote can be perceived as an endorsement of that person and their work past, present, and future. I’ve had to remove the names of some people from my website because they have gone a direction that’s unbiblical.

I often joke that I only quote dead people in part due to the number of Christians that have deconstructed and publicly sinned.

If you’re not comfortable naming the person, then find another person to quote.

Be careful you’re not quoting professing Christians that are false teachers. A speaker friend a few years ago had posted a quote by teacher that’s not Christian and I reached to make sure she knew who that was so she could take it down if she wanted to.

Please do some digging if you don’t know much about the author or theologian before you share it.

3. Copying other people’s teachings.

A few years ago, a women’s ministry leader shared that she used a video teaching she had found online as the basis of the teaching she had given at her church. She’d watched a video, taken good notes, and then presented that information to the women at her church.

That’s a copyright violation.

But also, and maybe in some ways more importantly, she didn’t open her Bible to learn what God said. She didn’t do the work. She missed out on that time with God and the Holy Spirit to learn what the scripture said on the topic she was teaching on.

She could have shared something that was unbiblical. She didn’t research the information to make certain it was correct. And from what I understood she also didn’t give any credit to the author of the talk – not that that would have made it okay either.

If you read someone else’s devotional that they’ve written (which I wish you wouldn’t do), you have to give them credit. (I’m working on a resource to help you with this. I’ll be sharing the details with my email list soon.) If you photocopy it to hand out to your women, you have to request permission from the author first.

The same goes for taking a photo of your daily devotional and posting it on social media – that’s also a copyright violation. (While it’s true most authors love positive publicity about their work, instead consider pointing people to their book.)

A Biblical Reminder

My goal is not to make you feel bad, it’s to make you aware so you can do the right thing going forward.

As followers of Christ, we want to honor other image bearers, and that means we don’t share their work without permission – even if we are a church or even if they are Christian.

I’ve heard women say, “it’s for church, it shouldn’t matter”. But it does. We shouldn’t knowingly break a law. And as I mentioned earlier, intent doesn’t matter when it comes to prosecuting copyright violators.

 You may be feeling very convicted right now by things that you unknowingly did that violated copyright laws. And I’m so thankful that as believers in Christ, we know that there is forgiveness.

I encourage you to seek forgiveness from God for the things that you did, knowingly or unknowingly, that may have violated copyright laws.

Take the steps necessary moving forward that you and your team honor the work that other people have done.

Today’s Toolbox Tasks:

1. Talk with your team about taking steps to ensure you don’t knowingly violate any copyright laws.
2. Ask your church staff for copyright guidance and guidelines so you can make sure your ministry is doing what needs to be done.

If you’re looking for more information on using images that follow copyright guidelines, be sure to check out my post How to Create Social Media Graphics. In that post, I share several resources for images that you can safely share.