Copyright

I belong to an email list called "Methodist Musicians." As the name suggests, it is for musicians, but is not limited to Methodists. There are always a variety of discussion threads, some of which have a habit of recurring every now and then. Today (or maybe yesterday) it was copyright law. Now, this is pretty much the bane of any musician's existence. It is so convoluted that not even publishing companies can/will give you a straight, correct answer that would not be contradicted by the same company in the future. We're talking about not letting couples record their wedding, not allowing parents to record their child's first solo, not recording the service to take to shut-ins, buying at least two copies of anything for a soloist to play, and buying one copy per notebook for the band. All of this on a limited budget in a church that currently is existing in a deficit situation, but wants new, fresh music for worship.

The thing is, I know why the copyright law exists--it is, in the best sense, to protect the composer/artists who write the songs and to provide them with fair compensation for their work. No one is arguing that this is a bad thing. But we have gotten ourselves into a whole stinking mess, and some of it has to do with new technologies. Probably before the advent of computers or copiers this was less of a problem, but I can't know that for sure. And stuff on the internet is its own mess and a half.

All I know is that if I find a song I want the band to play, for instance, and it is not in a "comfortable" singing or playing key, I can't just change the chords and move on with my life. So the bottom line is, I will try to comply and understand why it is the way it is, and still curse its existence. :-)