COVID-19 emergency measures and free Onelicense

[Southern Comfort]

A number of dioceses and parishes have already discouraged or banned the use of hymnbooks, and it seems only a matter of time before the Bishops' Conference issues a blanket ban. Typically, the recommendation would be to use service sheets and destroy them immediately after use.

The problem arises with parishes that do not have a copyright licence because they always use hymnbooks only. They could, of course, produce service sheets with only public domain material, but parish repertoires vary widely. OneLicense were therefore asked to consider the possibility of a temporary free licence for those parishes that do not already have a licence.

OneLicense do not themselves have the right to do this, since their contracts with their member publishers do not provide for this. They are therefore polling member publishers to see if they will opt in to (or opt out of) a temporary gratis licence.

OneLicense's response has been very encouraging. Assuming they get the go-ahead, they will from tomorrow issue a gratis licence via a special code for new users only. This would be for service sheets and streaming/podcasts. It would initially run until April 15, but could be extended if the situation warrants. That would get people through to the other side of Holy Week. Even if all public acts of worship were banned by the government, the streaming facility would be helpful to people who want to watch at home.

The main problem for OneLicence is that they have no way of contacting people without licences to let them know about this, so tell all your friends! I will update this thread as the situation develops.

As a footnote, in the USA, ICEL, who control many of the Mass texts, and the owners of the scripture translation the Americans use, have already agreed to free usage for the duration of the emergency.

[Southern Comfort]

If you need a temporary free licence, contact OneLicense by emailing info@onelicense.net Tell them you are in a UK parish that currently has no licence (even if you have a CCLI one) and they will help you.

[Southern Comfort]

https://news.onelicense.net/2020/03/13/ ... 308412769

This gives complete information about the gratis temporary licence, officialy launched 5 minutes ago, and the publishers who are covered by it. Any parish that does not have a OneLicense (formerly Calamus) licence is eligible.

[Southern Comfort]

Forgot to add that if you already have a OneLicense or Calamus licence, there is a free add-on available for those who want to stream or podcast liturgies that those not attending could watch at home (e.g. via the parish website).