family movie night

[akw107]

I am completely new to this but have a simple question. Our small membership church would like to start a once a month movie night with DVD's that we already own. We have three in mind to start with, "Facing the Giants, FireProof, and Letters to God". Where do we start to be in compliance with current copyright laws?

[sempei13]

Check it the producer of those movies is listed with CVLI.org. You can get a license from CVLI to allow it be legal if the producer is listed.

[petereit]

Sherwood Pictures sells a "Group Showing License" of each of their movies ($199 for Facing the Giants, $229 for Fireproof). "Letters to God" has something similar, but is priced by congregation size ($179, $279 or $379)

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by sempei13

Check it the producer of those movies is listed with CVLI.org. You can get a license from CVLI to allow it be legal if the producer is listed.

An addiitional recommendation on CVLI: Contact them directly if you have ANY question about whether a particular movie is covered by your CVLI agreement.

CVLI comes in two versions, or levels of access. The basic one covers a pretty limited subset of Christian/family-oriented content, while the Total Producer Package covers a LOT of commercial movie releases. Annual fees are based on your membership/attendance and which package you choose.

Since CVLI doesn't by any means cover everything out there, you may find that you want to contact some producers directly for rights to show their films, or go to licensing organizations like Swank.

A couple of examples of why you check out movies with CVLI directly: One of the producers of "The Passion of the Christ" is listed, so you would think that it's covered by CVLI. It's specifically NOT covered, but you won't find out unless you contact CVLI directly.

On the other hand, the Veggie Tales producers have made some (all?) of their content available to churches for free with far less restrictions than the CVLI agreement. In other words, it really can pay to investigate each film individually.

If you sign up for CVLI, be sure to study carefully the various terms of your agreement. Since you're planning a Movie Night kind of activity, watch out for the limitations on advertising and promotion outside your church.

Roger

[CopyrightSolver]

Not much to add to the thoughtful comments above. I would only add that if your CVLI license does not cover a film or video that you would like to screen, you can have CCS do the leg work on securing the license with PERMISSIONSplus.

[JeffM]

I was curious if any church had been prosecuted for the copyright violations of showing a movie or video.. Just wondering.

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by JeffM

I was curious if any church had been prosecuted for the copyright violations of showing a movie or video.. Just wondering.

I don't know how to ask this question other than straight out: If it were true (and I'm sure it's not), would the fact that no church has ever been prosecuted (or sued) for copyright violations mean you'd go ahead and deliberately ignore copyright law?

Just askin'...

Roger

P.S. A couple years back the NFL threatened to go after churches that were planning Super Bowl parties with the game on big screens. They eventually decided that suing churches would be bad for their image. There was a long discussion thread here on churchmedia.net about it. But it sure looked as if the NFL had every right to do so as the law is written.

[JeffM]

Originally Posted by rkresge

I don't know how to ask this question other than straight out: If it were true (and I'm sure it's not), would the fact that no church has ever been prosecuted (or sued) for copyright violations mean you'd go ahead and deliberately ignore copyright law?

Just askin'...

Roger

P.S. A couple years back the NFL threatened to go after churches that were planning Super Bowl parties with the game on big screens. They eventually decided that suing churches would be bad for their image. There was a long discussion thread here on churchmedia.net about it. But it sure looked as if the NFL had every right to do so as the law is written.

No intention of violating any law. Just curious if any church been prosecuted. Never said anything about ignoring it.

[rkresge]

Originally Posted by JeffM

No intention of violating any law. Just curious if any church been prosecuted. Never said anything about ignoring it.

As I said, I was just asking.

As I understand copyright law violations (and I'm not a lawyer even though I played one on TV once), there is rarely - if ever - any direct prosecution involved. Again, as I understand it, any legal action is almost always based on a complaint from a copyright holder, and then takes the form of a lawsuit demanding damages.

I think there are one or two lawyers who hang around here - they should know what the history is.

Roger