Pirating of DVDs and CDs is still quite common amongst Christians — at least in my experience. And I don't like it. As explains, we are to submit ourselves to the governing authorities, regardless of how inconvenient this might be. You may access Content for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the Service and as permitted under these Terms of Service. I thought I'd check out the to see what they had to say about churches using YouTube clips. As far as I can tell, the long and the short of it is this — in most cases, it is not legal to download YouTube videos for church use, personal use, or any other use, apart from the two scenarios mentioned above. Similarly, I discovered that should you for some reason want to reproduce e. CCLI who give licence for music offer video licence for most major movies which gives you rights to play a clip for a sermon. My apologies for misleading anyone with my previous post now removed to avoid any confusion — let's strive to submit to our authorities and stick to the terms of use required by YouTube. All is not lost! Coming soon, I'll share some helpful resources for finding videos to use at church. If you'd like to suggest any to get the list started — comment away! For more information, please visit our Blog and the following Help Center entry about partner video downloads. While I agree that Christians have an obligation to observe copyright law, we have to remember that terms of use do not change statutory rights. To infringe copyright, you need to be using a substantial part of a copyrightable work. Taking a short clip of a movie might not be interpreted as substantial. There are provisions for the review or criticisms of copyrighted works — including ideas conveyed within the work. For instance, YouTube has made it clear in their terms of use that downloading videos in almost every instance is a no-go. Playing YouTube clips i. Can someone else shed more light on this? There are a lot of issues that come into play here. Some are black and white, others are somewhat gray. On the black and white side we have: 1. Creators and owners of creative work, have the right to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Creators and owners of creative work, should have some say over how their work is used. On the grey side of things we have issues like: A. Copyright should not be used as a weapon to deter review or criticism of the work. If someone for example, created a documentary with vexatious claims about the Christian faith, you would expect that churches should have the right to display the film and criticise the ideas shown in it. Can a third party enforce copyright that was willingly surrendered by the original copyright owner? For example, Mars Hill Church voluntarily surrenders some of their rights by allowing all users of their material to copy, distribute and transmit their work With some small constraints. By uploading the their videos to Youtube does this mean that Mars Hill must now enforce, or assign to Youtube the right to enforce legal rights that they want to surrender? By the same token, can civil contract revoke a right enshrined in statute law? If the law says that something is not a copyright breach, is it unconscionable for someone to attempt to place it as a condition on a contract? The harder question is that if we believe it is so, do we simply not agree to the contract, and not use the service, or do we accept the contract excepting the unconscionable and unenforceable terms? I agree with you. I think YouTube or similar services can enforce this. They are providing the infrastructure at considerable cost and they can determine how people use it. However, the last point you make is a good one. Ken, some good questions there. I personally think the using the creative commons licence is a good step for churches who wish to pass on their content for kingdom purposes. I would highly recommend the resources Steve highlighted above. They are relatively cheap — even if sometimes they have an american slant. Bottom line really is to educate each other and provide a clear path forward so everyone can know what the legal boundaries are. We also as Ken indicated need to honour the artist who created the work and we can do that by acknoledging their work or paying what they are entitled to for the work. Keep up the chat. I just came across an article on Mashable —. From the Youtube Terms: 5b. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content. YouTube and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in and to the Service and the Content. You agree not to circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Service or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any Content or enforce limitations on use of the Service or the Content therein. A video may be in public domain or under a license that allows duplication, or one may have permission from the CR holder to duplicate it, but without the download link then YouTube TOU disallows using software to do so, although buffering does save content. A legal means to save video that allows duplication is thus needed. On a doctrinal note, N that Rom. However, in my opinion Christians who criminalize the copying of content, for free distribution and with attribution, which is supposedly offered as Christian ministry, are themselves acting contrary to Scripture. But those who without permission use such gospel material of others to make money are criminals. We should live by faith and trust the Lord to provide for what we need to do His work, and not make people criminals who help to share it for free. I use Chrome and I have Real Player. I have a Real Player downloader add-on in Chrome. I have slow internet and I download only God related files. I want to watch God Gospels movies but for my personal use… I think God owns what He owns. I think He is the Authority of Authority. If I ask permission to Him maybe its ok.. BUT Still a DELLEMA..
