New Here & I Need Some Help!

[ThePatriot832]

Hello. I am new to this site. I just registered my account a couple of days ago.

I came here looking for some help with a music video project for church. I have questions concerning both legal issues and where and how to find media I can use for the project.

I sing solos (special music) in church from time to time. I usually purchase and download karaoke tracks from iTunes, but sometimes I buy and download them legally from other stores on the Internet.

I want to make a karaoke music video for a Sunday morning service in church. Since I don't have my own video camera (and have never learned how to use one), I won't be recording my own video clips for this project. Instead, I will need to use video, stills, and audio downloaded from the Internet for this project.

I have read some information from various places online about the legal aspects of doing this kind of thing and it is all very overwhelming and confusing to me. I do understand that churches are exempt from certain legal restrictions during their regularly scheduled services, but what laws they are exempt from exactly is confusing to me. I also understand that my best bet for avioding legal trouble (getting suited) for myself and for my church is to use only media that is in the public domain or is under a Creative Commons license that allows it to be freely used for non-commercial purposes. I also would like to not only use this in church, but I want to be able to legally upload the finished project to Internet websites like YouTube and GodTube, etc. I do know that the legal issues with uploading to the Internet are much more complicated than just simply performing in church. I obviously need some help here about what to watch out for from a legal perspective. Indeed, I need legal advice that is suitable for someone who is unfamiliar with laws governing this type of thing.

I also need help finding some video, audio, and image media for my project. I'll just begin with the subject matter of the media I am looking for at the moment. I will need more media later on, but for the time being I am looking for media of New York City. Specifically, I need a video clip or still image of the Statue of Liberty with the Twin Towers (before 9/11) shown in the background. I also need video or stills of Times Square, Wall Street (Stock Market), a time lapse video clip showing NYC traffic in the evening through nightfall. A clip depicting one of the two World Trade Center towers collapsing, and a clip or picture of the smoke rising from Ground Zero after both towers had collapsed. I also need video or images of the emergency crews, firetrucks and police cars at the scene of the attack on the WTC on 9/11.

This is all I have for right now. I will post more later on. Thank you all for your time and attention and for your advice.

God bless!

[Paris MkVI]

First of all, what licenses does your church currently hold?

If you church has a CCLI license, this will cover your performance with accompaniment tracks in the service. But it does not provide you the right to duplicate, broadcast or webcast your performance. As soon as you do that, you violate the copyrights of the original composer and/or performer on the accompaniment track.

The church really does not have any significant copyright exemptions under law, except those that everyone else enjoys; the Fair Use clause and such. Even these are written rather "fuzzy", in order to provide judges with leeway in the courtroom.

Of course, that implies that the courtroom is involved, and who wants to end up there?

I would suggest beginning a conversation with the folks at Christian Copyright Solutions.

Yes it is all a bit of work to get this stuff legal. But we are called to be people of integrity as we serve as His ambassadors. You are on the right track pursuing that! THe neatest thing is, if we are required to modify a project to be in line with the law of the land, that is OK. When God speaks into and through a project, He will accomplish more - with less - than anything we could imagine!

[Paris MkVI]

As for free/low cost media, try:

The Stock Exchange - great resource for free and low-cost images.
CG Textures.com - a free membership provides 15MB of downloads per month.
Igniter Media Group - they will occasionally offer a free download. Not a bad idea to be on their email list for that. They also will sometimes offer libraries of footage just for the cost of shipping. This means a about a dozen DVD's with footage for under $100. That's not free, I know. But the deal simply cannot be beat. I have purchased multiple libraries from them.
Muddy River Media - another free resource; they accept donations.
Vine Resources - also known as "Stuff I Can Use".
The Work of the People - another occasional source of free clips.

[JoshGuerette]

The WorshipHouse Media sites have free stills/motions/mini-movies as well - WorshipHouse Media, WorshipHouse Kids, Media Shout
EDIT: Midnight Oil has monthly freebies as well

[ThePatriot832]

PARIS AND JOSH: The links you've listed are great, but all except for one of them (Stock.Xchng) are Christian websites as far as I can see, and Stock.Xchng only has still photos available, nothing else. While Christian-based sites are indeed helpful, does anyone know of any URLs to secular websites that have free media for download that could be useful?

[Paris MkVI]

Try Stock Footage Free. I cannot guarantee what they'll have available in the free library. But I have purchased many low-cost collections from Footage Firm (they provide footage to this web site), and have found them to be useful in various projects.

[ThePatriot832]

Okay, obviously this music video project is for this upcoming Sunday, September 11th, 2011, and has much to do with the 10th anniversary of 9/11. As I am winding things down and wrapping things up before it's all good to go (though I don't think this video will be properly licensed and approved to go up to an Internet site like Youtube or Godtube for streaming, at least not right away), I have some more legal questions to ask:

What is the legality of using short clips (without the movie audio) from the movie "The Passion of the Christ" in the music video? I have heard that this particular movie is different in its licensing terms for this kind of use and may not be covered by any universal licenses. Specifically, I wish to use two scenes from the movie: One featuring Mary Magdalene and the other with Mary, the mother of Jesus. The scenes are the one of Mary Magdalene when she first meets Jesus and reaches out her hand to touch his foot, and then Jesus takes her by the hand and Magdalene rises to her feet before Jesus. The second is of Mary, the Mother of Jesus as she goes to Jesus to help him lift and carry the cross. These scenes are both more 2 minutes long in the movie, so of course I only plan on using bits and pieces of these scenes from the movie because the song is only a little more than 6 minutes long, and these clips will only be used in a small portion of that 6+ minutes.

And what about the legality of using clips from another movie based on the Left Behind novels (written by Tim Lahaye & Jerry Jenkins) by Cloud Ten Pictures? Specifically, the first movie out of the 3 that movies that were made of the same title: Left Behind? I would like to use both video and sound clips from that movie in the music video.

What is the legality of making a dedication for the video project to put at the beginning of the video? Are there any requirements I should adhere to? Things I should not say or should say? Specifically, the dedication will be to the deceased victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (and those who barely escaped with their lives), the rescue workers and cleanup crews, the police and firefighters involved and the heroic passengers of United Flight 93, etc.? Also, to our men and women in uniform, to our soldiers in the military, that is, who selflessly give up their freedom so that we can have freedom. And finally, and most importantly, a dedication to Jesus Christ in honor of Matthew 28:18-20, and the eventual fullfillment of the Great Commission.

Thank you for your time and attention.