Church policy on music and videos, and YouTube?

Does any one know what the Church policy is on Church music and videos, and YouTube? If you do searches at YouTube, there are THOUSANDS of videos using church material, music and videos.

Here's some examples of what I'm asking about...

Thomas S. Monson search gives out 300 videos.
Gordon B Hinckley search gives out over 400 videos.
Joseph Smith search gives out over 4,000 videos!!!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... acle+choir Over 400 videos on the Morman Tabernacle Choir.

Then you got music videos that use church music and/or videos to make music videos. For example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzmw6DDEodQ Uses Church videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBJwBki8TUo Uses Church videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1TgCTSNkhA Uses Church videos and church music (Morman Tabernacle Choir music.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_2-FFo8Flk Uses Church videos and church music (October 2008 General Conference Children's Choir.)

One YouTube poster on his profile says

Many of the videos I have uploaded are produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I take no credit for these wonderful productions.

and has over 400 videos.

I would guess Intellectual Reserves knows about them, since the church has it's own YouTube account. Should we be emailing the church every time we see a YouTube video that uses church material, that's not posted by LDSPublicAffairs?? Or should we go on the idea that if a video attracts the spirit, or does good, leave it alone?

Jesse Smith wrote:Does any one know what the Church policy is on Church music and videos, and YouTube? If you do searches at YouTube, there are THOUSANDS of videos using church material, music and videos.

I would guess Intellectual Reserves knows about them, since the church has it's own YouTube account. Should we be emailing the church every time we see a YouTube video that uses church material, that's not posted by LDSPublicAffairs?? Or should we go on the idea that if a video attracts the spirit, or does good, leave it alone?

I would expect that if there were any problems, they would take whatever actions are warranted. I refer you to the Church policy regarding music, which can be found HERE.

Jesse Smith wrote:Does any one know what the Church policy is on Church music and videos, and YouTube? If you do searches at YouTube, there are THOUSANDS of videos using church material, music and videos.

This raises a difficult issue. How can we share the gospel using new media without infringing on copyright law. While there is an abundance of LDS media available online, there is very little (if any) "official" media with licensing that allows it to be legally shared/remixed.

I would love to see a list of use cases from Intellectual Reserve on what type of media use are appropriate and honest. For example, is there a greater allowance when the media is used to promote the Church?

Fortunately, there also seems to be more and more user created media (such as Creative Commons licensed pictures of temples on Flickr) that allow for greater reuse.

mactoph wrote:This raises a difficult issue. How can we share the gospel using new media without infringing on copyright law. While there is an abundance of LDS media available online, there is very little (if any) "official" media with licensing that allows it to be legally shared/remixed.

I would love to see a list of use cases from Intellectual Reserve on what type of media use are appropriate and honest. For example, is there a greater allowance when the media is used to promote the Church?

Fortunately, there also seems to be more and more user created media (such as Creative Commons licensed pictures of temples on Flickr) that allow for greater reuse.

The Church provides some guidance in the use of its media which is posted on their official web site at lds.org or by clicking HERE. I would recommend that if you have any unique situations beyond what's posted on their site that you contact them directly.

Jesse Smith wrote:I would guess Intellectual Reserves knows about them, since the church has it's own YouTube account. Should we be emailing the church every time we see a YouTube video that uses church material, that's not posted by LDSPublicAffairs?? Or should we go on the idea that if a video attracts the spirit, or does good, leave it alone?

Anything obtained from lds.org is subject to the Rights and Use Information for that site. That page certainly does not give permission for freely copying media that is copyrighted by the Church. However, it does provide contact information for people who want to obtain permission to use copyrighted materials.

Techgy wrote:I would expect that if there were any problems, they would take whatever actions are warranted.

About three or four weeks ago, I sent a message to the video poster that confesses to be posting many church videos, who has over 400 videos posted, and he replied with....

I think the answer to your question is that the Church has an official Youtube channel and is aware of the videos that are on Youtube. If they wanted to have my videos removed (or others'), I think they probably would have contacted me or Youtube by now.

So it looks like they arn't runing around trying to take their copyrighted videos down, atleast when it does no harm.

Alan_Brown wrote:Anything obtained from lds.org is subject to the Rights and Use Information for that site. That page certainly does not give permission for freely copying media that is copyrighted by the Church. However, it does provide contact information for people who want to obtain permission to use copyrighted materials.

Most of the videos that the church makes isn't even on the web site, which is what it looks like that covers. (Think church DVDs, which looks like it's a *big* source for LDS videos posted on YouTube.)

Although, strictly speaking, its probably a copyright violation to upload conference talks and music to youtube, seems the church isn't bothered nor worried about it.

Intellectual Reserves do go after anyone who uploads versions of the General Handbook of Instructions though. They draw a line with that one.

But those youtube videos probably help to get the message out there, so its probably counterproductive to try and stop them or to email the church to tell them, since they know already.

I've asked our legal department to see if they have any "official" word.

Tom

I have received a reply from the Church's legal department regarding this. Here is the response:

The Church is currently working on a broader policy to enable this type of creative work. Meanwhile, however, the Church asks that members seek permission from the Church IP Office before using Church materials.

Tom

My favorite website to promote is: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/ I can post links to this site or its articles. It always has great information, and it clear. While Youtube has great videos from the Chruch and about the Church, it has many dangerous placed to be avoided. newsroom.lds.org doesn't have that problem. If someone does go there, they can learn alot.

arc wrote:My favorite website to promote is: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/ I can post links to this site or its articles. It always has great information, and is clear. While Youtube has great videos from the Church and about the Church, it has many dangerous places to be avoided. newsroom.lds.org doesn't have that problem. If someone does go there, they can learn alot.

Thanks for the reference and welcome to the LDS Tech Forum. I'd agree that whenever anyone is looking for "official" information regarding the programs of the Church, that the newsroom site, which is a subdomain of lds.org, is a good place to begin. In addition there are many other sites (subdomains) that are a part of lds.org which contain helpful content.