Worship in the Cloud 61

recruitment of members from another congregation, or Jewish organization. However, members of the Reform movement have signed onto a code of ethics which prohibits exactly this. So, even though“poaching” may not be, inherently, a halakhic violation, we have bound ourselves to a code of ethics, and so we have a halakhic obligation to obey those rules and restrictions.

That doesn't mean, of course, that livestreaming services is inherently a violation of those rules. Congregations are always open to non-members for services, and regularly advertise in local papers, community newsletters and so on. These activities are not“poaching.” Offering easy viewing of services is not, either. So long as efforts are not made to explicitly target members of other congregations, there is not any real reason to think of livestreaming as poaching.

There is an important issue, likely to be overlooked, that is copyright law. Probably every service conducted in a Reform synagogue involves the performance of at least one piece(musical or reading) which is under copyright, and for which permission has not been granted. US law states that: the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographing works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly.(17 USC section 106).