That word produces any number of reactions, all dressed up as a yawn. One yawn comes from the conscientious administrator who has to block out a day or two to fill out the returns booklet. Another yawn comes from the person who knows nothing about it and doesn't really care. Another comes from someone writing an article about it, and another from the reader of that article.
Whatever we think about copyright, the law has certainly tightened up on this over the last few years and I' m pretty sure that many churches are (in most cases unwittingly) breaking that law. As gospel-loving Christians we need to be subject to the authorities on this.
It' s quite an easy thing to get sorted - The Christian Copyright Licensing International organisation sees itself as the 'one stop' copyright resource for the church. Its existence has eased many consciences all over the world about this matter by helping us to be legal. It can be expensive, but CCLI was set up because of a $2,000,000 lawsuit taken out against the Chicago Diocese for copyright breaches, so better to be slightly hard-up than completely broke!
