copyright – La Vista Church of Christ

I didn’t give permission for my statements to be used!

Jeffrey Hamilton — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:32:08 +0000

Question:

I noticed you posted something written by Terry on your website. This was shared publicly by Terry from a private group and was a casual conversation. I would appreciate it being taken down since it was shared publicly without permission by Terry and also done without my permission. If that won’t be done I’d ask at the very least that my name be taken out of the quotes.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Answer:

I've known Terry since the 1980s and have had his permission to post his articles for decades.

US Copyright laws allow for fair use of others' writings, so long as the quoted writings are not portrayed as your own, are given in part, and are being used for criticism (among other things). This includes private communications, such as letters or posts to private forums, so long as private information (address, phone number, Social Security number, etc.) is not disclosed. In the case of fair use, the permission of the original author is not required.

I teach computer ethics at times. You need to understand that anything you post on the Internet is not truly private. From what I understand, the group you posted in, while private in its membership does not ask its members to keep the things posted in the group private.

I'm sorry that you don't wish to acknowledge ownership of your own words. I mentioned your objection to Terry and he suggested replacing your name with "Orthodox Church member," which has been done.

Sources:

Jane Friedman, "A Writer’s Guide to Fair Use and Permissions + Sample Permissions Letter", 18 July 2023.
"Fair Use," Copyright Information, PenState, 2022.
"IEEE Referencing: Unpublished material", Victoria University, 18 August 2023.
"Fair use and fair dealing in social media", Legal Zoom, 11 May 2023.

When should credit be given when using someone else’s material?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 20:51:10 +0000

Question:

Brother Hamilton,

I first want to tell you how much I appreciate all of your efforts to serve God and proclaim His word.
Although we have never met, your postings and sermon outlines have assisted me in my studies and in my efforts to teach others for several years.

On many occasions, I use your outlines or the outlines of others to study and put together lessons for the congregation here. In some cases, I present the lesson very close to the outlines, but in other cases, I use the outline but make multiple substantial additions or alterations in the process of putting the lesson together. I try to always give credit to anyone whose work I use or whose work helps me, and I will often give credit to you or others whose outlines I use in sermons or classes. At some point, it occurred to me that in my efforts to express my appreciation for the work of others, I did not want to give the impression that everything that is being taught is from the outlines. I have now taken to saying something along the lines of, “ I want to thank brother __________ for his outline that was used in preparing this lesson, but I don’t want you to blame him for everything I am about to say.”

Given your long history of teaching and preaching, I wanted your advice on a few things:

When using an outline or sermon notes prepared by another to put together a sermon what is the best way to recognize their efforts?
Is there a point at which, when using an outline or other study to put together a sermon or lesson that has many additions or changes, most people would prefer not to be mentioned because the lesson being presented has been amended or altered to too great an extent?
My last question, is something I had not thought about before, but if a sermon or lesson is prepared very closely to another’s outline would it be best not to post recordings of that particular sermon or class, or is this commonly done?

I would value any advice you may have. I may be overthinking the issue, but I know how much work goes into teaching and preparing lessons, and while I want to make use of the trove of excellent outlines and studies prepared by the brethren, I want to do it properly and respectfully.

If there is any other advice or some common issue I have omitted, I would appreciate any guidance you might offer.

Thank you again for your stand for the truth.

Answer:

Since all preachers are teaching God's words, there is a sense that none of us can claim that our lessons are truly original. However, we each have our own ways of looking at God's Word.

Many of the ideas I have for lessons come from articles that I've collected over the years. Usually, there is some point or a way of approaching an issue that I particularly like. Often, I will look through my collection when I need an idea and find two or three articles that I blend. The result is usually not like any of the original writer's works and since it is significantly different, I won't mention the sources of inspiration.

If I particularly like the way a point was worded, I'll quote the author and mention in the lesson who made the statement. In my notes, I will record where I found the quote. This is proper etiquette and you will find the writers of the New Testament doing it. For examples of quoting look at Romans 10:25-29. Even though Paul would sometimes adjust the wording to fit his particular point, the source is credited. Legally, this is what the copyright laws in most countries require.

If I follow the basic flow of thoughts from another author, I will put a note at the bottom of my outline stating where I found the idea. Generally, it will say "Based on so-and-so's article titled ..." I usually don't mention it during the lesson but if anyone asks, I will tell them where the idea came from.

It is rare that I directly follow another person's outline. I personalize things for the way I think, add verses that I think might fit the topic well, or remove verses that I don't believe prove the point solidly. But in the few cases where it is strongly based on someone else's work, I often will start by saying, "I read an interesting lesson the other week by so-and-so that made points that I think we need to hear."

In my own case, I don't care if other people borrow my lessons or present them in their congregation. I'm not out to make money from my writings. I'm here to teach the gospel. I do get annoyed when people take something that someone else wrote and then try to pass it off as something they created. That isn't being honest. The pages on La Vista's website are marked giving permission to use the material as a person sees fit, so long as the original creator is credited in some way.

I'm glad to hear that the efforts here are benefiting others there.

Question:

Brother Hamilton,

Thank you for using your time to respond. I know you are very busy.

I understand what you mean about none of our lessons being truly original (at least one would hope not), but knowing the work that goes into preparing the outlines or studies I just wanted to be diligent to not give a wrong impression either way. I also understand your sentiment about not caring who uses your material, I feel the same way about any of my outlines or studies. When I use outlines from others, I also often add verses or remove verses, combine outlines, and change points or illustrations that are mine, etc. so that makes sense, and I honestly rarely listen to audio files or videos so I often don’t hear the full scope of the sermon or lessons, but prefer outlines because they help me locate verses that apply to a subject that I may have missed. Your responses are helpful.

Additionally, I will say that while there are a lot of preachers that post videos or audio files of their sermons online there are very few that go to the effort of posting a written outline. It is a lot of extra work, but I want you to know that it is very helpful and appreciated, as is your question and answer material, and study material.

We are praying for you and the work you do, thank you again.

Answer:

There is a simple reason for the sermon outlines. Search engines cannot index the content of audio and video files. You would have to be very detailed about what you titled your lessons to even get a referral from someone's search. The outlines are what is important, the audio files that accompany the sermons are just a bonus because some prefer to listen to lessons while they are doing other things.

I'm like you. I don't watch or listen to lessons very often. I much prefer to read. Thus, I have our website designed with reading in mind. It actually doesn't cost me much time to post the outlines. My word processor (WordPerfect) automatically generates the code needed on a web page to display an outline. I just copy and paste it into the right place.

How does copyright work with translated songs?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 15:44:12 +0000

Question:

I would like to seek your guidance, brother, regarding the translation of English hymns into another language.

Here in the local congregation where I belong, we are working on a project to create a new hymnal (words only) where the text is in a local dialect. All of my work (written or translated) are from public-domain hymns. An evangelist (a former pulpit preacher) came to visit us. He also has a passion for the translation of hymns. He showed me his translations of some English hymns and some copyrighted church songs. I also showed him mine, which I didn't plan to include in my work but were done for my personal use only. Examples of these songs are "Because He Lives," "In Christ Alone," "Bless the Lord," "Give Thanks," "Highly Exalted" and "When I Go Home."

I would like to know, brother, if we can also print in our own dialect these new songs that are still copyrighted since we are singing them without musical instruments and without notes in the pages of our songbook. Would this kind of arrangement be acceptable and not illegal for us to use, considering that we won't be selling the work?

Please guide us regarding these things, brother, as we want to sing praises to God without any worries that what we are singing is illegal in the eyes of men.

Thank you so much. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Answer:

I am not an expert on international copyright laws, so I can only share with you what I understand, but my understanding may not align with what a court would decide.

There are two parts to a hymn: the lyrics or words and the music. Each is given a copyright that covers all forms of reproduction and distribution. This includes printed copies, recordings, and even singing in a congregation. A translation of the lyrics of a song is considered a derivative work and, thus, the original author still controls the use.

One way to obtain permission is to contact the author or the current copyright holder. Michael Eldridge and Charli Couchman are still alive. Matthew Bassford died in 2023, but I believe his widow manages his copyrights. You can ask them for permission to translate their songs and state how you plan to use them. Some may ask for a small fee, depending on how you plan to use the songs. You can then decide if it is worth the cost.

I received an unofficial CD containing songs I know are copyrighted. What should I do?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:26:00 +0000

Question:

A song leader from another congregation had burnt a CD from a group of people who recorded songs from the Hymns for Worship hymnal, to try and teach song leaders how to lead some of the less used songs in the book. He had given it to my grandpa years ago. It is copyrighted material. This person has always stood out to me as a very good Christian man. If he did burn this CD without permission, I would be almost positive it was out of ignorance. However it is possible (I think) for him to get permission to copy it, or perhaps he paid for another copy and just copied it himself. I really don't know. But do you think it would be fair of me to just go ahead and assume it's legal and to use it anyway? I know that my grandpa probably wouldn't have broken the law on purpose; however, I think it's possible they both might have been ignorant of it. What do you think?

Answer:

The easiest answer is to simply ask if he copied the CD with permission. Today you can buy a license from a clearinghouse like CCLI to copy music. And if he didn't realize that permission was needed, it isn't hard or expensive to buy a license. Another choice, if you are uncertain, is to simply go and buy your own copy.

Are you supposed to acknowledge that you are quoting from the NKJV?

Jeffrey Hamilton — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:19:00 +0000

Question:

If you quote from the New King James Version aren't you suppose to include a proper acknowledgment? I think it can be found near the preface if there is one in your NKJV. If you don't include the proper acknowledgment they want is that not breaking copyright law?

Answer:

Thomas Nelson Publishers ask:

The text of the New King James Version® (NKJV®) may be quoted or reprinted without prior written permission with the following qualifications:

Up to and including 1,000 verses may be quoted in printed form as long as the verses quoted amount to less than 50% of a complete book of the Bible and make up less than 50% of the total work in which they are quoted;

all NKJV quotations must conform accurately to the NKJV text.

Any use of the NKJV text must include a proper acknowledgment as follows:

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson,
Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

However, when quotations from the NKJV text are used in church bulletins, orders of service, Sunday School lessons, church newsletters and similar works in the course of religious instruction or services at a place of worship or other religious assembly, the following notice may be used at the end of each quotation: "NKJV."

I put this as a request because the rules for use of copyrighted material are actually controlled by the government. In truth, Thomas Nelson is loosening some of the restrictions so that their work will be used more often and won't unduly burden their staff with requests for permission to copy.

I tend to quote from the New King James Version because many people are familiar with the wording style of the King James Version, but the NKJV is easier to read, more modern terms. The web site falls under the last paragraph since this is being produced by a church. All quotations are distinctly marked with quotation marks and longer quotations are indented. Notice that in the footer you will find NKJV as the quoted option. Also if you place your mouse over a verse reference, it says "NKJV." Having those there, I don't repeat the information in the plain text where it can distract.

Please notice that the use of NKJV with each verse reference is not required. It only says that it "may be used." Most magazines and bulletins don't add the NKJV since space is limited.