Playing Vimeo Non-Commercial Videos in Churches

[ThatMediaGuy]

I'm in a tug of war on the issue of playing vimeo clips during a church service service. While a few hours of research has clarified that the term "non-commercial" (pertaining to creative commons) is extremely gray, I'm leaning toward the opinion that a church engaged in normal sunday activities is not exempt from copyright laws under fair use so we would need to be specifically licensed for the content. The vimeo content provider is also not likely a CVLI licensed content providor and I can't make the jump to say that we're ok as "non-commercial use" when we advertise these events and series ahead of time and sell DVDs and post videos on a website with a donate now button.

On the other end, i'm being told that because we're a church, we are "non-commercial" under creative commons and not to worry about it. My recommendation is to ask permission from the group that posted the clip or get a legal opinion so we can have clear policy, but again, I'm told it's not necessary.

Has anyone been able to research this further and get a clear answer? My tendency is to play it safe when it comes to the murky waters of copyright, but I don't want to hold the leadership back if there are no issues.

thanks in advance

[ChurchCopyright]

Apart from the Religious Service Exemption, churches are subject to the same laws as everyone else. The exemption covers performances of music and displays of images, but not videos. This is the whole reason for the existence of the CVLI license.

Another issue to consider is that the creator or uploader of the video might be using copyrighted works without permission. You could be compounding someone else's infraction.

[sempei13]

I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on tv. I'd try and get permission as much as possible. If the creator specifies that you can display it during a live event, don't worry about it, but make a screen cap of the license just to have on file in case.

I once had a discussion with someone who was asking "what can we get away with" at church. That's the wrong question. The right one is "How can we be above reproach" and honor the worker who according to both Jesus and the Apostle Paul is "worth his wages."

Paul