MSGID: 2:240/5853.10@fidonet 148c8789   
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   Hi,   
      
      
   > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5_dzjSIySw   
      
   > Something I don't understand about Christian music though: Do they all just   
   > share each others songs freely? There are like 10 different versions of   
   > Revelation Song all sung by different musicians. I've noticed this with   
   > other Christian songs too.   
      
   > The king of kings deserves all-original material! ;)   
      
   I think the original version of this song was written by Jennie Lee Riddle     
   in 2004.   
      
   Now, when I clicked on your Youtube link, I got geoblocked because I am     
   located in Europe. I know how to circumvent this with VPN, but one can     
   wonder whether this is what the king of kings intends or deserves ;).   
      
   If you look at how the classical hymns originated, they mostly were     
   created by folks who had a paid job, like pastor, organist, or choir lead,     
   and were then freely shared and propagated and sung by everyone. I think     
   that's how it should be and modern Christian groups try to mimic this idea     
   of sharing the gospel. However, they also have to make a living from it.     
   So they try to generate revenue from Youtube or other sources as well.     
   Understandable.   
      
   Over here in Germany we have a state-enforced system called GEMA which     
   collects royalties from every computer sale, from every public performance     
   of whatsoever. Artists who create something register with GEMA and there     
   is some mechanism of how they receive their share from the royalties     
   collected by GEMA.   
      
   My parish (a confessional Lutheran one in Germany) streams its services     
   live on the Internet. We started doing so during the lockdowns, but     
   continued doing it afterwards because we are a minitory church with a very     
   big catchment area (some have to travel like 2 hours to get to church) and     
   not all elderly members make it every Sunday.   
      
   Now we have a hymnbook issued by our church that has both the original     
   Lutheran hmyns as well as modern songs. When the congregation sings, we     
   overlay the lyrics on the video stream. Soon we were contacted by GEMA     
   that this is a public performance (of the lyrics) and we need to pay     
   royalties. We ended up overlying the lyrics only for the royalty-free     
   traditional hymns. Streaming the congregation singing modern songs without     
   showing the lyrics was deemed to be allowable without having to pay     
   royalties to GEMA :).   
      
   There also was a wide discussion about our traditional Christmas fairs.     
   The choirs that perform there are deemed to be professional (even if they     
   don't ask for money) and hence someone (usually the merchants present at     
   the fair) has to pay to GEMA for such performances of "modern" Christmas     
   songs. There was a huge political uproar about this about this, because     
   the calculation scheme for GEMA on Christmas fairs changed and singing a     
   Christmas song at a Christmais fair became freaking expensive. I wonder,     
   though, whether it is really necessary to sing "modern" Christmas songs at     
   those fairs, we have so many beautiful traditional ones that are entirely     
   royalty free ...   
      
   There is clash here because the need for artists to receive fair     
   remuneration (something every Christian should subscribe to) on the one     
   hand, and the wish for the gospel to be shared freely (something also     
   every Christian should subscribe to ...).   
      
   Cheers!   
   Tobias   
      
      
   --- OpenXP 5.0.58   
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