Remaking Songs for Educational Purposes

[kodacolor]

I'm trying to put together this CD for the praise team and the choir of songs we already do.  However I'm having trouble finding the songs that we do.  So would it be illegal to remake the song just for this CD?  It won't be for sale, but it might be CD quality.  A friend of mine was telling me that if it's CD quality there's a pretty good chance I could get sued so I if I make it a little less than CD quality...could that work? 

Or do copyright laws trump this? 

Thanks for your help.

[betnich]

    If it's what is known as a 'demo' and NOT for sale, that would be safer. There is a loophole in Copyright Law for Fair Use and Educational - like borrowing a book or CD from a library to use at home in a non-commercial context. Unfortunately use in church services is not covered, thus the growth of royalty licensing agencies such as CCLI. If you eventually want to make a commercial CD it would be best to contact the song's composer/publisher to get permission and a mechanical license via the Harry Fox Agency (harryfox.com).

   Speaking as a musician and a non-lawyer, it would be wiser to make the song demo, not commercial quality, only give the CD to the people learning the music, and keep yourselves off the Royalty Police's radar...

[hardheaded]

like betnich said as long as it is not for sale you should be ok.  I dont know if you guys record church service but if you do make sure to leave the songs off of the dvd or cd that your selling or you could get sued for copyright infringement but as far as the quality of the cd goes im not sure on that one