While feeling patriotic this afternoon, the song "God Bless America" popped into my head. As I didn't remember all the lyrics, I did a search and the first set of lyrics I came upon:<p>http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/godblessamerica.html<p>had a rather explicit copyright notice at the top. It struck me as I thought about posting it to a page, whether or not I could quote the song without permission from the copyright holder.<p>The thing of it is, the song explicitly states that it is a prayer, and then directs that prayer to God. So it seems that using it should be a right afforded to us under the free exercise of religion clause of the first amendment.<p>So I wonder, what takes precedence? A person's legitimate claim to ownership of their creative work, or another person's free exercise of religion?
To add more to the mix - all license proceeds go to scouting organizations in the US. Why do you want to take money away from the girl scouts? ;)<p>(See <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/11/opinion/greene-berlin/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/11/opinion/greene-berlin/inde...</a> )<p>There's no freedom of religion issue here. Your religious principles don't require you to sing that song, do they?<p>If they do, I'm curious how the text of a Jewish songwriter, concerning Armistice Day, became a part of your religion. Did your religion start after 1938, or change its tenets?<p>FWIW, there is a religious exception in copyright law. Sect. 110[3] says "(3) performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work or of a dramatico-musical work of a religious nature, or display of a work, in the course of services at a place of worship or other religious assembly;" is not an infringement of copyright.<p>What you described does not fit that category.<p>Since the words are on Wikipedia, you can probably not worry about it.