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 The editor of Catholica, Brian Coyne, presents this second report on a series of concerns that emerged at a Conference on Copyright and Church Music held last Saturday at the Parramatta Diocesan Centre*. The focus today is an educational one on explaining the copyright procedures that need to be understood at the local parish or school level by those who have responsibility in those places for reporting copyright usage. Trying to make copyright understandable and simple for those who have to record and report what is used at the local level. by Brian Coyne
The workshop on the weekend was facilitated by a relatively new organisation, the Australian Pastoral Musicians' Network. This network has been set up to provide a forum and network enabling better communication between all the stakeholders who contribute to the overall Music Ministry of the Catholic Church. A large part of the impetus for establishing the APMN came from a sense that often musicians feel isolated at the local parish or school level and it would be useful to have some kind of forum or network where expertise might be shared. As a journalist and as one who has had specific involvement in the institution at the level of an archdiocesan liturgy committee and on a State Performing Arts Committee in Catholic education I have long been aware of some of the difficulties people involved in music in particular have faced at the local level. One big area of concern that has been apparent for years is the weight put on people over this issue of reporting what music has been used for copyright recording purposes. Frankly it is a pain in the butt to almost everyone and for some actually a source of scruples and moral anxiety as to whether they are "doing the right thing". The people who seem to find a "happy balance" in this responsibility would seem to be the exception raher than the rule. This workshop facilitated by the Australian Pastoral Musicians' Network last Saturday will hopefully be the first of many organised around this country — and not only on copyright issues but in other forms of professional assistance. A conference or workshop on Copyright was the logical first place to start though given the amount of grief this causes in the hearts of so many. In this article and the accompanying videos I hope to give a broad overview of the challenges posed in understanding copyright with the objective of trying to relieve some of the anxiety and at the same time encourage greater compliance in reporting. The starting point... The starting point to understand copyright is that the Copyright Licensing Companies or Agencies basically represent the interests of the composers and artists whose work is being used. Their principal function in life is to collect the copyright royalties on behalf of the artists they represent and then to distribute those royalities back to the creative people in as fair proportion as possible to how the works of those artists are being used in the wider world. You might wonder why there are so many agencies? The answer to that is because different artists are catering to slightly different markets — and they look for an agency that has developed a speciality in catering to the market their works are directed at. Also the end users — yourselves out in the parishes — often have different needs depending on the musical repertoire or style that is most comfortable or has grown up in your congregation.
In Australia the first person to recognise the need for a copyright agency for church or christian music composers was Mark Beckwith's father, Roger Beckwith. Mark was one of the presenters at the Workshop on Saturday. Mark's father set up Word of Life International back in 1979 as both a publisher and distributor and as an agency for composers. Word of Life set up a simple procedure for parishes to record what music was being used — and on which royalities were due. Mark Beckwith explains the history of his agency and also some of the procedures they adopt, which have been slightly refined over the years, in this half-hour presentation he gave on Saturday. Word of Life International still remains perhaps the most familiar agency for many Catholic parishes and schools — and especially those that have what Mark describes as a "conservative" repertoire and who want a very uncomplicated procedure for reporting what music has been used in their parish. As well as the different recording procedures there are different styles of licenses depending on the needs of your particular parish or school. Readers who are involved in copyright at the local level do need to spend a little time studying the different options to select the best one given your circumstances. Some of these options vary according to the repertoire needs at the local level, others are more concerned with the style of parish or school and in what settings the music is performed.  The Word of Life International (WoL) procedure for reporting then is fairly literal. It depends on people at the local level accurately recording what music has been using during the year and faithfully submitting their returns annually to WoL. From those returns WoL determines how the total royalty money they have collected should be divied up between all the composers they represent — both the Australian composers and those ones from overseas whom they represent. An alternative approach... Changes in technologies and the ways in which people can now copy, reproduce, publish or perform copyrighted works have begun to have a massive effect. As indicated in material we published yesterday both from within the workshop and in separate interviews, everybody is aware today that there is substantial non-compliance in recording and reporting what works have been used and how they have been used. As a result of this, and as Monica O'Brien explained yesterday in the Panel Discussion, many of the composers she represents have also sought representation from another company, Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI), who have developed a different method of endeavouring to gauge accurately which music is being used, and by whom, and in which proportion to other artists. CCLI still requires recording and reporting of what music is used but they allow this to occur online via their website and, through their international company, they have developed sophisticated computer programs and algorithms that are generating more accurate feedback particularly as regards the relative weighting that ought be given to the different composers in the way their music is being used and in what proportion the total royalty revenue ought be divied up. Naturally the composers love this, especially those who are just getting started and those who are lesser known or whose works are performed less often. CCLI at both the international level also runs regular surveys of actual usage in selected parishes or regions to ensure the sampling methods they use are accurate.
Unfortunately I did not record Malcolm Hawker's presentation to the Workshop — simply because at that stage I didn't think I'd be writing up a report like this. Malcolm Hawker is the Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific operations of CCLI. Mark Beckwith's presentation later in the day prompted that as I don't think Mark has previously given a public presentation like the one he gave on Saturday. I did however record this brief comment from Malcolm Hawker at the end of the conference on a not unrelated question as to whether Christian Music Royalties overall are increasing or decreasing. I was particularly interested in getting his views on this given the widespread exit that has been occurring out of the pews in many of the mainstream churches. In this short clip, Malcolm also mentions the impact that new technologies are having on the whole question of how usage now needs to be recorded, reported and evaluated. Like Mark Beckwith's agency they also want to make the recording procedures as simple as possible for the people at the local level who are saddled with the legal responsibility of reporting usage but they have adopted a different way of going about achieving this. For more details of the procedures that are involved in reporting music usage check out the WoL and CCLI websites: www.freelink.com.au/wolstart.htm I think it is important to appreciate — and this came through in the presentations from all the agencies at the workshop on Saturday — is that these agencies do not see themselves in competition. Rather the different agencies are catering to slightly different markets — both in terms of the repertoire/artists/composers they represent and also in terms of the needs of users at the local level in terms of your repertoire and your reporting responsibilities.  To complicate things a little further — a third dimension...
While the two agencies already mentioned WoL and CCLI are the principal agencies a church or school needs to be concerned with for the specifically Christian music repertoire, it is often the case that apart from religious services, music is also played at many church related functions and at activities organised by community groups on church properties. This often requires permission from copyright holders who might not be represented by the Christian music copyright agencies. Fortunately there is an umbrella organisation – or two in fact that operate from the one location/website: the Australasian Performing Right Association Limited (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Limited (AMCOS) — who provide a simple and inexpensive option to cover these contingencies. You'll find a pdf document at the link below which explains the procedures for gaining this general license coverage from APRA-AMCOS. Again, those with responsibilities for copyright issues at the local level need to be also aware that the APRA-AMCOS license provides a general contingency license but it contains many situations that are not covered — for example if some musical was staged on school or church premises. Those with responsibility for copyright at the local level need to be aware of the APRA-AMCOS procedures outlined in this document: www.apra-amcos.com.au/downloads/file/Music Consumers/churches_2006.pdf Here is a brief interview I recorded with Fiona Loader, a copyright attorney who represented APRA-AMCOS at the workshop where she explains how the law and procedures are changing and also a general overview of the role played by APRA-AMCOS in church music copyright.  In part III of this report I will be looking at a separate issue which is causing some concern for musicians and composers: the commissioning under the authority of the Australian Bishops of a new hymnal or worship book. Who determines what repertoire will be used in the Catholic Church — the broad body of the faithful, the broad body of musicians or some self-selecting elite of musical "purists"? Brian Coyne, 21 Nov 2011 USEFUL LINKS: What are your thoughts on this commentary? 
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The real Divine Miracle... Alexander Tsiaras in this TED Talk presents a stunning video on human life from conception to birth using the newest x-ray scanning technology that won its two inventors the Nobel Peace Prize. Why do people work themselves up over weeping statues when they themselves are "the miracle"? 9m38s [String on the Catholica Forum where this video was first discussed 28Apr12] | [WATCH THE VIDEO]
Doco 039: 28Apr12
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