• You will receive a reminder to renew your Licence six weeks before it expires. Please return your worksheet with your renewal fee.
• Please ensure that your Licence is renewed two weeks (minimum) prior to its expiry date. This allows us time to process your new Licence documents, and ensures your continuing use of the reproduced words of hymns and songs is fully covered.

How do I know if the words of a song are covered by the CCL Licence?

• Look for the owner - usually found at the base of the song, or on the insert of a recording next to the © symbol.
• Check that the owner is on our Authorised Catalogue List.
  • If yes: the words of the song are covered.
  • If no: please feel free to contact us. The owner may have recently joined, or we will give you details of who to contact for permission.

What do I do if the song has no copyright information?

• If in doubt, Email Sales for information.

What does Public Domain mean?

• The song is no longer in copyright; you do not need permission to reproduce the words.

When does a song become Public Domain?

• 70 years after the author's death. This used to be 50 years, but changed on 1st January 1996. This means that some hymns have come back into copyright, so be careful!
• N.B. If you wish to reproduce the music, check that it is the original melody (Public Domain). Many public domain songs have had new melodies or arrangements added, in which case, permission for reproduction needs to be sought from the new owner. In some cases, the words may have also been updated or modified, so do check first. The new words could be in copyright.

Am I free to use Copyright Control / Author Unknown Songs?

• NO. CCL cannot give permission to reproduce the words of these songs, as the owner cannot be traced.
• If you decide to go ahead and reproduce the words of these songs, it is at YOUR OWN DISCRETION, and you should be prepared to pay royalties for that use, should the owner become known.

What acknowledgement should I give next to reproduced songs?

• At the base of the words of the song you should put:

  [Author]
  [Year, Owner]
  CCL Licence No. [your Licence number]

  For example:

  Jesus Loves Me

  Chorus
  Yes, Jesus loves me.
  Yes, Jesus loves me.
  Yes, Jesus loves me.
  The Bible tells me so.

  Jesus loves me this I know,
  For the Bible tells me so.
  Little ones to Him belong,
  They are weak, but He is strong.

  Jesus loves me, loves me still,
  Tho' I'm very weak and ill.
  That I might from sin be free,
  Bled and died upon the tree.

  William B. Bradbury and Anna Bartlett Warner
  © 1990 Good Music
  CCL Licence No. 123456

  (The actual copyright information is: Words 1859 and Music 1862, so this song is in the Public Domain, but the song has been included here just as an example.)

If you have made a church song book, you need only put the author, date and owner at the base of each song, with the following acknowledgement in the front of the book:

"All songs covered by Christian Copyright Licensing have been reproduced under CCL Licence No. [your Licence number]. All other songs have been reproduced by permission of the copyright holders."

What if a song is not covered by the Licence?

• You need to contact the copyright owner of the song and gain permission to reproduce it.
• You should report reproduction of the words of the song in your Song Survey Worksheet in the Write-in section. We can use this information to find out who we should be inviting to join the CCL Licence scheme.