Copyright for Celebrants Work

Is it sufficient to just quote the author of a poem or piece of prose in your ceremony to avoid breaking copyright?

The answer depends upon whether

• you are performing only or performing and publishing, and 

• you have permission to use that author's work.

Performance only means you simply read the piece - nothing more. For example, purchasing a book of poetry then reading directly from that.

You do not need a Copyright licence to read a poem from a book you have purchased.

Publishing involves printing a copy from the internet, your typing the material and/or ; printing out the material to read from; creating a .pdf or other file; emailing the material to someone else and/ or storing the material in your computer.

Any type of publishing, as described above, requires the author's permission to do so, or a CAL Copyright Licence.

If you have not sought permission directly from the author or purchased the material in a form from which you can read such as the purchase of a book, then you will be breaking copyright.

Goodness - do you mean I have to seek permission for each and every poem/ prose from all those different authors?

Fortunately no. CoCA associations have access to CAL Celebrant Group Licences for a very reasonable annual fee. Some associations offer this as part of their annual fee, others as an optional extra, others as a product to non-members.

Are there some things the CAL licence does not cover? How do I show I have the licence? Is this the same as Copyright Insurance? See our Commonly Asked Questions about Copyright

PURCHASE Copyright from the TCN Celebrant Shop - remember to LOGIN