If I created a version in BIAB of Chris Tomlin's "How Great is Our God" I couldn't use it on Sunday morning as backing tracks?
Or if I asked someone to share their created version in a BIAB file .mgu for the same song above.... I couldn't use it on Sunday morning?
Also are there some strict guidelines for the ACW? .... It's a program specifically designed to copy someone else's stuff.
Just asking cause I want make sure I don't cross the line. Just trying to do the right thing.
Trying to do the right thing..... laudable.
first: The auto chord wizard doesn't copy. It detects the chords and the tempo. Big difference.
next:
You would owe the royalties paid through a license if you are recording the song and selling copies of it. So no, just performing the song doesn't necessitate royalty payments from you. You said you're not making copies to sell.... so this doesn't apply.
OK... so....
Provisions in the law for churches read the emails further down the page at the wiki-site.
Copyright law makes provisions for religious use of music in their services.....with conditions.
Basically, in a church service, the music is exempt from the need to pay license fees, which is kind of what I was thinking. As long as it's in the service and not piped to other parts of the church..... so that puts a number of churches with video in the lobby and other places in conflicted positions. Streaming it to the net or on DVD's of the service is a totally different issue and are not exempted.
Enter CCLI, One license, & GIA.... which negotiaited with the publishers and copyright owners to set a fee to cover the uses of music in the churches in this modern age of technology. Power point, copy machines, etc...Problem solved. You can play the songs, the church pays a yearly fee, and no copyright laws get broken. Everybody who's supposed to get paid is happy.
Play the music, use the backing tracks and let the church handle the paperwork (if any) with CCLI if they record the service to DVD.
Backing tracks you make from BB are royalty free. Use them to create without worry. Same deal for other synths and sample packages. No problems.
With Band in a Box, many folks are creating and posting (sharing) their original user tracks for others to download and use. Those are copyrighted instantly according to copyright law, but since the person is sharing them freely on the internet, you can use them freely as well. If the person who created them did not allow you permission to use them without a license fee, I'm sure they would be on a site for sale and not as a free download. This does get into a gray area, so in a case like that where you would be using them in something that might be recorded, you would probably wish to do the right thing and contact that person. Get their "official written permission" to use their loops or user tracks in the song. That way, you have yourself covered.
My 2 cents