The music director was already looking forward to next year's show until a lawsuit arrived claiming that the church's performance had violated federal copyright laws. The musical's copyright owner charged copyright infringement and demanded a substantial sum of money from the church. After reviewing the facts, the church's attorney quickly negotiated a large settlement to avoid an even costlier judgment that would have been awarded in federal court. And even small, accidental copyright violations can be costly. Copyright violators can be required to pay the copyright owner actual or statutory damages.
Actual damages depend on the market value of the copyrighted works, however, and can be much larger.
Although your church or ministry may never intend to violate copyright law, even accidental or unintentional violation of someone's copyright can have severe legal ramifications. Having a basic understanding of copyright law is a good start. Copyrights are generally owned by either the person who created the work or the employer who hired the person to create the work. U.S. law no longer requires a copyrighted work to bear a copyright notice. Just because a work doesn't include a copyright notice, don't assume that it can be displayed or copied without permission.