Copyright for Celebrants Work

Can I just quote the author of a poem or piece of prose in my ceremony to avoid breaking copyright?

The answer depends upon whether you

• are performing only, or

• performing and publishing, and 

• 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, 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 CA 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.

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 a Copyright Agency Celebrant Group Licence for a very reasonable annual fee. Read more about Copyright below.

Members of The Celebrants Network can purchase their Copyright Agency License when they join or renew their membership