The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) will co-organise a consultation on the impact of contemporary copyright regulations on creativity, innovation and sharing of resources within the ecumenical movement. While the focus of the consultation will primarily be on the impact of copyright on the production and sharing of worship resources, the attempts to invest knowledge with property values will form the larger back ground to this workshop.Why should copyright be taken seriously within the ecumenical movement?
Internationally the questions concerning the ownership of worship resources, particularly as they derive from and are used in churches, are not clear. There are international rules, which by force of law apply also to the church. But Christians may also have a response to these rules. Sometimes these rules currently at work seem to allow and sometimes even encourage the theft, whether intentionally or not, of worship resources originally arising communally from a people who have no idea of individual ownership of Christian worship resources. But these rights are often claimed by the person/s who transcribed a song, arranged it, translated it and published it. Over all, there is no clarity about ownership of worship resources for use in churches, and what role churches might play in enabling the sharing of such resources in an ethical way.
Who is it for?
The consultation is open to ecumenical publishers, web managers, composers, legal experts on Intellectual Property Rights, Christian ethicists, Christian artistes and young ecumenical communicators who have shown an interest in issues related to global communications.
