Copyright

Key point 9-05.07. The Copyright Act gives copyright owners the following exclusive rights—reproduction, adaptation, distribution, performance, and display. Anyone who violates one or more of these exclusive rights commits copyright infringement.

Key point 9-05.09. A copyrighted musical or dramatico-musical work of a religious nature may be performed or displayed in the course or services at a place of religious worship or other religious assembly. This is an exception to the copyright owner's exclusive right to publicly perform the work.

* A Michigan court ruled that a church had to pay $1.6 million in damages for recording a soloist's performance during a religious service without her permission and then selling CDs of the service to church members and the general public. It is common for churches to make audio and video recordings of services. A recent case shows how ...