Accidental infringement: Clanton church learns about laws firsthand

Accidental infringement: Clanton church learns about laws firsthand

By Anna Keller

Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist

West End Baptist Church, Clanton, wasn’t trying to break copyright laws. A staff member had posted a promotional piece on the church website about a swimming party for their children’s summer program. After doing a Google image search, a photo was selected and used on the website for a few weeks, along with the corresponding promotional text. After the event, the promotion was taken down.

It’s a familiar story, one that’s similar to what many other churches do when promoting something.

But despite innocent motives, West End Baptist bore the brunt of copyright laws.

A few months after the swimming party, the Chilton Baptist Association church was blindsided by a letter from a law firm seeking damages on behalf of the photographer and owner of the copyright for the image the church used without authorization.

West End Baptist had never had a copyright issue before. It also thought it was covered by it’s long-time membership with Christian Copyright Licensing International, but it turns out, that membership extends only to a church’s music usage and worship ministry.

Taking necessary steps

Recognizing the copyright mistake, Eddie Lightsey, assistant pastor at West End Baptist, said the church took all the necessary steps to “repay the owner for our unauthorized use of the copyrighted photo and protect our interests as well.”

Thankfully, “after meeting with our insurance provider we found out that we were covered for liability in this case and they took over the process of negotiating a settlement,” Lightsey said.

He said it was “truly a blessing” to discover that the church’s insurance policy covered this type of issue.

Unfortunately, however, issues like this are not isolated ones, and it’s important for churches to brush up on how to protect the church and its staff/members from copyright infringement — especially when multiple staff members and church members have access to a church’s website, social media accounts, etc.

Critical understanding

According to Will Hill Tankersley, partner at Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, it’s critical for churches to understand that pulling images from an Internet search, however harmless its intent, and then using them in promotional pieces is risky from a copyright standpoint.

“The rights are there once the work is created,” Tankersley said. “What that means for churches is you need to assume that something that’s a creative work belongs to someone else. Unless you’re getting assets from a place that offers up art as public domain, you should never assume you have the right to use it.”

He likened using an asset without consent to finding a car by the side of the road with keys in it and using it to take someone who’s injured to the hospital.

“You don’t have the right to use it just because it’s easily available to you, even if it’s for a good cause,” he said.

Since this incident at West End Baptist, Lightsey said he and fellow church staff have educated themselves to better understand what is within and without their rights from a usage standpoint. They’ve also found ways to access noncopyrighted photos and media, which are fine to use within church promotional materials.

“There is a wealth of very good options if you are careful and know where to look.”


How to avoid violating copyright law

Avoid using materials (photo, artwork, copy, videos, etc.) that weren’t created by your church for use in promotional materials (whether it’s online, in a newsletter, in a bulletin, etc.).

“In my experience, churches often have a helpful presumption when it comes to infringement actions,” said Will Hill Tankersley, partner at Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham. “There’s an assumption churches have a charitable and noble purpose. But that won’t save you if you are a genuine infringer, no matter how noble your cause.”

Register to be a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). 

It’s free to register, and being a part of DMCA allows churches to get safe harbor protection for some copyright violations by giving them notice and allowing them to remove the offending asset before official legal action is taken.

“You do have to take down any asset you’re notified about though. Just being on the registry isn’t enough,” Tankersley said. “That’s why it’s important to have a reliable point of contact for the registry who can be on top of removing the photo.”

Use disclaimers liberally. 

Consider placing a disclaimer on your website, print and social media properties, letting readers/viewers know that, “We disclaim any sponsorship with outside organizations that might be represented here.”

Reach out to organizations in advance if you want to use their material. 

Often the answer will be yes, and churches will be given consent to use the material in a completely legal and approved fashion.

Michael Taunton, litigation, appellate and IP/trademark attorney at Balch & Bingham LLP, said, “The worst infringers are the ones who feel entitled to [use outside content] because of their mission. A simple phone call could do a lot to smooth things over in advance.”

Talk to your church’s insurance agent. 

Make sure you have copyright coverage that makes sense for the church. Many churches just have personal injury coverage and wouldn’t have the same insurance backing as West End Baptist Church, Clanton, happened to have (see story, this page).

“There is a presumption that exists that churches are charitable and so they’re going to be given some leeway,” Taunton said. “I would say though churches need to be increasingly careful when it comes to copyright and IP issues. Some of that presumption is fading.”

Limit access to church
channels. 

Churches have more channels than ever: website, social media, YouTube and more. To protect themselves from copyright issues, it’s very helpful for churches to limit the number of people who have access to posting information to these channels, and to ensure that the people who do have access have been properly trained to avoid infringement.

Chris Friedman, litigation attorney at Balch & Bingham LLP, said, “Churches are identity builders, and you have lots of people who want to express themselves and be part of that mission. If too many people can utilize those platforms though someone else who might not understand the dangers might post. If the person at the top can be familiar with some of the broad IP laws, that person can be the failsafe.”

Use consent signage at larger events. 

Putting up a sign that lets event attendees know that photographs and video will be captured and potentially used to promote the church can help protect the church legally, and allow them to gather relevant, owned assets to use in the future.

Be sure you’re copyrighting your own material. 

It’s also important that churches be looking out for their own assets, so when producing unique content such as music written by a church’s worship team or putting a sermon series on YouTube, be sure to go through the steps to copyright those assets.

Taunton said, “Churches want to be sure they’re controlling how that material is presented. Let’s say you’re producing a DVD of a sermon series. The church is going to want to make sure someone can’t chop it up and edit it to make it look like the pastor is saying something else. Even if you have no intent to monetize your materials, you need to take those steps to be sure the church isn’t made to look like it’s endorsing something it doesn’t want to endorse.”