ARTICLE: PROPERTY THEFT – HOLY SPIRIT NOT AN ACCOMPLICE BY BABATOPE ADEFUNMILAYO

I was at a rehearsal some years ago as an undergraduate when a sound which consist of lyrics, tune and melody dropped in my spirit. As a matter of fact, it didn’t come in English language, it came rather in the Yoruba language. At the time, I didn’t have the luxury of a phone with a voice recorder so, I had to borrow from one of the ‘’big boys’’ in my team so I could quickly document for safe keeping.

Days after, at the next rehearsal, I taught my choir the song [being the music director at the time] and my team of very talented and anointed singers and musicians did justice to the song. My excitement knew no bounds, my choir members also felt it was a song I should record for public consumption but it wasn’t cheap to record singles or an album especially for an undergraduate at the time so, that for me was a future plan.

Fast-forward a few years later, I was watching TV one evening and a gospel music video was next on the show, yeah, you guessed right, lol…. It was the song, ‘’my song’’, but was it really my song? Follow me.

In the music video, the chorus and style sounded alike or almost exactly the same I dare say but the verses were completely different. Then I began to think and beat myself up for not recording the song and now someone else had done it. I said to myself ‘’you will be termed a copycat even if you record and release your own now”.

I had a conversation with one of the people I respected when it comes to spiritual matters and he said to me ‘’when an idea drops in your spirit, be sure that it dropped in the spirits of several others too, it is the person who gets to first execute who becomes originator because God released the idea in the atmosphere so the spirits of all His children can catch it”.

That conversation made more sense to me years after when I was invited to manage a no alcohol, no smoking lounge where Christians could hang out, a project that I had dreamt of setting up when I was fresh out of university. I remember writing the vision and mission in my old diary. Money is good because every vision needs money to fly, story for another day, lets return to the matter at hand.

If that concept of God releasing ideas in the atmosphere for anyone to catch is anything to follow, can we really say same about songs? Even if God releases a sound in the atmosphere, I don’t think He would make different singers catch same lyrics, tune, melody and sound at the same time. I think it would be more of a theme. That’s why we can see for example different songs about ‘revival’ being released by different artist/ministers in the same season.

It is not a new thing to have more than one version of a song with same lyrics and just a slight variance in tune or rendition, but what will be new is authors of the different versions claiming the Holy Spirit gave them the song. The Holy Spirit doesn’t author confusion.”

‘’For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints’’. [1 Corinthians 14:33 KJV.]

Every song has a spirit and that’s why it’s our spirits that connects with the songs we hear or listen to. Over the years, I have come to realize that when you hear a song, it stays in your subconscious and can be there for a long time until it comes back to your consciousness. Have you ever found yourself singing a song and you’re wondering where it came from? You try so hard checking where you have heard the song before, you use search engines to source for the song and it becomes worse when your research brings no result. A part of you has the Deja vu feeling but the other part still feels you have heard the song somewhere prior.

There are high possibilities that you heard the song before but your search yielded no result because the song has neither been documented nor released for public consumption [which ‘isn’t your fault’].If you decide to hit the studio to record the song which hasn’t been copyrighted before your recording and release to the market for public consumption, and you sincerely can’t remember hearing it from someone else, you really haven’t done anything wrong. The problem will be that you heard the song no matter how long or short before you went to record and push it out to the public and just because the other person had neither recorded nor released it, you not only claim ownership, you boldly say “the Holy Spirit gave you the song”, you are nothing but a liar and a thief.

This is one of the reasons why phones and unauthorized recordings of any kind are prohibited during some live recordings. Some people are so ‘smart’ that they turn on their recorder and put the gadget in their pockets, as much as you are disobeying simple rules of an event you are attending, I think the main issue will be what you do afterwards with what you have recorded.

Some also hide behind the “cover’’ nomenclature to reproduce someone else’s song without giving credits to the person. You can’t pick a song and the only thing you changed is the language, maintaining every other part of the song from top to bottom and call it a cover. A cover should be you doing a part of the entire song in your own creative way and still give credit to the author of the original.

It is not a new thing having a song being rendered in different versions, there are a few popular ones these days including ‘Way Maker’ originally written by Nigerian music minister Sinach, ‘The Blessing’ by Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Steven Furtick and Chris Brown, anyone coming out with a new version of any of these songs now without authorization and claiming “the Holy Spirit gave me” may just be inviting some strong legal battle especially if the songs have been copyrighted.

In climes where copyright laws are taken seriously, you will only be doing yourself a disservice being charged for infringement of someone’s rights or intellectual property theft. Aside that, as a Christian you are expected to know that lying and stealing shouldn’t be found with you. Perhaps you should take time to read and study the 10 commandments in the book of Exodus as a refresher.

“No Stealing” [Exodus 20:15 MSG]

“No lies about your neighbor” [Exodus 20:16 MSG]

The one that should not only scare you but also worry you is that part of the Holy Spirit.

“Every sin or blasphemy can be forgiven- except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which can never be forgiven” [Matthew 12:31 NLT]

How you find it easy to lie and steal whilst claiming the Holy Spirit is your accomplice would remain a mystery.It should not be happening amongst God’s children and definitely not amongst ministers of the gospel of Jesus whether in words or songs.

However, I think it’s important to state also the need for every originator or creative person to take seriously the protection of your intellectual property. What you leave unattended is likely to be stolen from you and you may lose it forever even in the eye of the law if you are unable to prove beyond reasonable doubts i.e., with evidence that you own the property in question.

I know you expect that Christians should be above stealing and lying but you should also remember what was written in the book ofJob 1:6 [KJV]– “One day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and satan came also among them”.

If that intellectual property of yours is important to you, if it’s not something you can let go off even when you don’t get credit for it, then protect it at all cost even if it means paying for it. Perhaps, you should learn more about intellectual property and copyrights. Word of mouth alone wouldn’t be enough to lay claim to the property when/if its stolen.

Finally, I like to state categorically that taking someone else’s property with the aim of permanently depriving the owner of having possession is stealing. It is ungodly and it can put you in serious trouble. If you decide to do it, please keep the Holy Spirit out of the picture.

 

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Babatope Adefunmilayo is a music executive and lead at Switch Music & Entertainment, Radio & TV Host, songwriter and singer and Event Project Manager. Currently based in the United Kingdom. Connect with Babatope on all platforms @iambabatope