Copyright Issues in the Worship Ministry

Yeah...

you read it right - copyright issues.

I wonder if King David and the authors of Psalms,

Song of Solomon and all other songs written in the scriptures have the same issues back then.

What if someone lay claim that all the ancient scriptures as their own private property?

I'm pretty sure Jesus would have come back and would had made a whip chord with scorpions this time around for  turning his house  into a marketplace.

Prophets would have called "hail storms" and many more judges like Samson would have ripped apart temple foundations.

Back then, it was simple

- no one would ever thought of "paying tax" for singing "their songs" or worshiping God. But now, it has.

It is almost like during the time when The Roman Catholic church had the idea of selling indulgences for the salvation of souls in purgatory. Less, if the clergy don't pray -these souls are bound in eternal torment of hell-fire for that duration of "sin-time"

Now why would a christian songwriter would want to do that?

Perhaps there is a legitimate issues to consider.

I hope that more proper laws are made to give grace and at the same time gives freedom for people to worship God.

After all, we are only seeking God's greater glory - not the author of the song, songwriter or singer.

Again, when it comes to copyright issues are different from country to country. You would not able to press legal laws against a persecuting countries where Christianity is illegal or considered a minority.

Moreover when it comes to CCLI - they do protect and cover the legal issues when you sign up under them.

But above all, if you find that all these are too much of a trouble,

just refrain from using songs for worship that is has too much of these copyright issues.

Being fair on both sides,

I'm against making money in the "church setting" but I totally agree in the copyright act where the rights of the artist is protected where their work is not violated by making pirated copies and their work being sold.

If you want to serve God, don't do it for money.

And if you really want to make money - please don't sing & sell worship songs.

rather sing some of the conventional songs and make the whole world happy and you get your due wages and all your copyright acts sorted out.

Jesus had said, freely receive, freely give.

you don't want to go to heaven had hear the angels say,

"Hey! Don't sing my songs - they are copyrighted!"

(do unto others what you want others to do unto you)