A wave of sudden awareness and urgency regarding copyright licensing swept over the Korean ministries (KMs) of Korean immigrant churches in recent weeks.
A Korean copyright licensing company sent letters to Korean immigrant churches in the Southern California area, warning them that if they are not using their musical resources legally, they are under risk of being sued. The group then encouraged the churches to sign up with their company by the end of June.
This caused KM leaders - who had largely neglected the issue until this incident - to start attending seminars on copyright licensing, and hold inter-church meetings regarding copyright. Articles on copyright licensing also flooded the headlines of Korean media.
Most hymns are part of the public domain, allowing them to be used and reproduced freely.
Varying Degrees of Awareness in the Korean American Community
In comparison, there's a greater awareness of copyrights among the Korean American community, but in terms of legal coverage, it seems to be divided. Some Korean American ministries (including independent churches and English ministries) have coverage under a copyright licensing company, while others don't. Leaders in the Korean American community also vary in the degree of how well-informed they are about copyrights.
"I've been aware of CCLI for a long time," said Pastor Kiwon Suh of New Life Vision Church in Los Angeles. CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) is one of the most widely known licensing companies for Christian music that offers churches legal permission to reproduce musical resources in return for an annual fee.
Suh, who has been involved in worship ministry prior to becoming the EM pastor of NLVC, said he became aware of copyright issues through his involvement in worship.
"Worship leaders who have been to worship seminars and conferences should be aware of this issue," he said. "Maybe not all conferences talk about it, but many of them do. And there are a lot of articles about copyright in worship publications."
Jennifer Kim, who is a part of the worship staff at Church of Southland, also said that she learned of copyrights through worship seminars. Church of Southland is a pan-Asian church in Anaheim, CA with a large Korean American demographic.
"That's always been a priority for us -- that we're covered, and that we're giving credit where credit's due," Kim said of her church, and added that copyright is a topic that is discussed relatively often among the church staff. "We're constantly using resources, so this issue is really important in ministry."
In contrast, an EM pastor of a Los Angeles church said, "To be honest, I didn't know about this issue until all of this happened," referring to the letters that KMs had received recently. He added that though they had not had legal permission to copy the music, they had never run into legal problems, feedback which was shared by another EM pastor of a north Los Angeles church.
There are also EM pastors in the middle, who know that their ministries are covered under a copyright licensing company, but are unsure of what exactly is covered by their plan, or what it really means for their ministries.
(To note, the copyright coverage, or lack thereof, of the KM did not necessarily guarantee the coverage status of the EM. Some EMs have coverage together with the KM; others have separate coverage apart from the KM and do not know whether the KM is covered; still others do not have coverage while the KM also does not.)
Why Copyright Licensing?
"Is it a problem if no one is having any legal issues?" and "Why do we have to pay when we're just trying to worship God?" are among some of the counter arguments one may have against the idea of purchasing legal permission to copy music.
However, Suh said, the goal of copyright licensing companies is to "encourage the Christian artists, and to keep churches accountable."
It's also a matter of integrity, according to Han-Sung Chae, the president of Elohim CMP, a Korean copyright licensing company.
"The heart of copyright licensing is that the songs that have been used or will be used is properly paid for," said Chae, who is also in worship ministry himself.
"We want to help those who are having a hard time continuing their worship ministries due to financial lack. And we want to ultimately help move these worship ministries forward by bringing back the rights of these songs to whom they are due."
There are several ways churches and ministries can be assured that they are legally using their musical resources. One is only using songs in the public domain, which includes most hymnals. These songs are free to the public and can be reproduced freely.
Another option is to follow only what is permitted under the Religious Service Exemption of U.S. Copyright Law. This exempts the performance of songs - including playing songs with an instrument and singing songs - during a religious service from being considered as copyright infringement. This means churches could play the worship songs during worship, but it would be considered a copyright infringement to pass out copies of chords to the worship band members, or copies of sheet music to the choir.
Yet another option is to pay an annual fee to a copyright licensing company and have access to all of the songs in the licensing company's database.
The database of the aforementioned CCLI has over 300,000 Christian songs, and offers various coverage options depending on the church's needs. Its most widely used plan allows the church to store lyrics, print songs, and create projections, among others.
Christian Copyright Solutions (CCS) grants churches access to millions of songs under ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, some of the largest performance rights organizations that also cover secular songs. However, a major difference between CCLI and CCS is that CCLI focuses on allowing churches to copy music, while CCS focuses on allowing churches to perform music outside of a religious service (for example, playing music - live or recorded - at a fundraiser). Performance of music outside of a religious service is not exempt under the Religious Service Exemption, and would thus need coverage.
The annual fees differ depending on the size of the church attendance, and some copyright licensing companies require that churches report which songs they used on a regular basis, so that the royalties could be properly given to the respective Christian artists.
