By Aaron Miller-
Jehovas Witness group Watch tower, is suing BMG over a copyright issue involving one of its songs.
The legal fight is over the merging of Welsh singer Aled Jones, with BMG to release a new album titled ‘Blessings’.
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The religiously inclusive album which incorporates songs associated with Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, and Quakers has led to a legal issue, after it was designed for Christmas, which Jehovas witnesses do not celebrate.
A song on the album called “Listen, Obey and Be Blessed”, a work owned by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the supervising body and publisher for the Jehovah’s Witness religious group. The appearance of this song on a commercial album immediately annoyed religious leaders who oppose associated their belief with Christmas.
Jehovas witnesses oppose their work being commercialised, and do not wish to be mentioned in the same breath as other religions with different views. They can be said to have the same arrogance as many other faiths that insist they alone possess the truth. Therefore including them in a Christmas song is a big problem. They could have charged a fee for the song, but that would be commercialising Christmas in their view.
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The Christmas we all love to cherish was the spark for a case being filed this week in a New York district court. The dispute should have been resolved out of court, it is doubtful Jehovah will be clapping and cheering them on in court .
Pegan
Jehovas witness believe Christmas is a Pegan celebration, but those celebrating it and doing it in the name of the same God they claim to believe in, become enemies once used commercially. BMG will need to show a license or some permission rights, they will expose themselves.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania said BMG Rights Management (US) LLC, and BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, had no authority to reproduce registered musical composition, and they infringed its copyrights by doing so.
“Without authorization, Defendants have recorded Plaintiff’s original and registered musical composition of ‘Listen, Obey and Be Blessed” in a sound recording, have reproduced, distributed and publicly performed Plaintiff’s musical composition in the infringing sound recording and are causing and purportedly licensing others to do the same,” it reads.
Song Book
The complaint alleges that the song was published as part of a song book, for which the copyrights were officially registered in the US. To date, Watch Tower has only licensed other parts of its organization to use the work, and that necessarily does not include BMG. Nevertheless, BMG included the song in its album and listed itself as the copyright owner on cover art, while allowing various streaming services to offer the work too.
Watch Tower contacted Aled Jones’ manager vefore the album was released, objecting to the use of the song in any manner. In a response from BMG UK, the company said that it had been given permission to use it by German rights society GEMA, another entity known for its own copyright infringement lawsuits.
License
Despite the claims from both music outfits, Watch Tower insists it never approved licenses. This appears to be supported in a response from GEMA, which told the religious group that BMG UK had asked for a license but the request was denied because GEMA had no rights to license the work.
The buck was then passed to BMG in the US, who were apparently in the process of obtaining a compulsory mechanical license to use the song. However, Watch Tower says the necessary procedures weren’t followed so that licensing opportunity failed. As a result, BMG is guilty of copyright infringement and causing reputational damage to the entire religion.
“Defendants’ infringing acts have caused and are likely to cause numerous Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of the public to believe mistakenly that Defendants’ use of the Composition on the Infringing Sound Recording was licensed or otherwise authorized by Watch Tower,” the complaint reads.
“As noted above, such license or authorization would be antithetical to the teachings and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses, including a literal interpretation of the Bible, including by commercializing the Composition, allowing the Composition to be used in conjunction with works of other faiths on the Album and allowing the Composition to be used in connection with the Christmas holiday.
Preliminary Injunction
Watch Tower is now seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent any further distribution of “Listen, Obey and Be Blessed” plus either statutory damages or BMG’s profits generated by the infringing activity.
It remains to be seen how the case will play out. Professional wisdom is that the copyright owners should have been consulted before any aspect of their song was used.
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