Thank God Jesus Didn’t Copyright the Gospel: Why We License Our Music the Way We Do Reprinted from www.marshill.org

All the material on “Songs for the People” has been licensed under the Electronic Frontier Foundation Open Audio License. We have chosen to bypass the traditional copyright and publishing structures because they are incompatible with the spirit of the music created within our community.

Traditional copyright and publishing systems focus exclusively on seeking profit from all form of duplication and usage and consider any form of trading or sharing illicit. This model is outdated and incompatible with the current technology (mp3, peer-to-peer file sharing, CD duplication).

On a basic level we must question what life songs of worship have when disconnected with the local church. More so, we must question the most prominent business models for music distribution (“Christian” or otherwise) – models where usage is entirely dependant upon an exchange of currency (CCLI, ASCAP, BMI, etc.).

The Open Audio License (OAL) basically states that you, the worldwide public, are authorized to use, copy, publicly perform, distribute and create derivative works from all materiel covered under the license -- provided you always credit the original author information. That includes: the symbol (O) for the EFF Open Audio License, the identity of the original author, the title of the work and how the first listed original author can be contacted.

The OAL also states that any derivative work produced must also be released under the OAL. The license borrows language from the open source software initiative and the free software movement to create a community of sharing that benefits both the creators and the public while encouraging creativity through relational distribution.

We believe that this is a much more up to date business model for music. It acknowledges that there is no way to control how people use our materiel. It also acknowledges our lack of interest in seeking that control.

This is especially appropriate as it relates to songs of worship.

We have put much effort into this project and seek fair compensation for our CD’s. This, however, is the only way in which we seek to be compensated. Outside of that, we place no limitation on how you want to use our materiel except that you acknowledge that we, Mars Hill Church, are the original creators.

We strongly encourage musicians to consider these issues and release their materiel under the OAL. For a complete explanation of this license and the organization that created it go to
http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/eff_oal.html.

Comments:

Thnak God! I've been arguing this point for years. Thanks!
Teresa McCarthy (e-mail), 2005-04-29