NEWS RELEASE

A Georgia composer, Ronald G. Calhoun of Savannah, Georgia, on February 12^th won round two in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit against who some have called the "ivory towers" of religious denominations and the publishing houses of the Southern Baptist, United Methodist and Nazarene.

The copyright infringement case has been ongoing since 1997 and centers around the song "Emmanuel" which is claimed by the defendants to be one of the top ten commercially rated religious songs in the last decade.

What makes this case important to the small town composers in America is that Ronald G. Calhoun has represented himself without the benefit of a law education. The defendants teams of attorneys represent law firms of King & Spalding with offices in New York and Texas; Kilpatrick Stockton LLP with offices in Brussels, London, Stockholm and Washington, Massachusetts and North Carolina; Callaway Braun Riddle & Hughes of Savannah, Georgia; Buchsbaum and Lowe of Savannah, Georgia; Kent Worsham & Smart of Savannah, Georgia; Inglesby Falligant Horne Courington & Chisholm of Savannah, Georgia in addition to attorneys in Nashville.

The song has been published in numerous publications including the hymn books of the United Methodist, the Southern Baptist, the Nazarene and Word Music, a nondenominational hymnal. The United Methodist boast of in excess of 4.5 million copies of their hymn book was sold as of October 31, 1999 with worldwide distributors in Canada, New Zealand, Ghana, Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong, South Africa, Zimbabwe and India. The Southern Baptist offer their hymn book for sale to 15.8 million members in more than 40,000 churches in the United States, Canada, Guam and the Caribbean and more than 4,000 foreign designated members in 129 nations of the world.

This is a case that shows that no one has sovereign immunity from copyright infringement. The hymn book is considered by some denominations as the second most holiest book in churches next to the Bible.

After round two going to the plaintiff and hearing what is taking place in the case, Dave Smith of the law firm of Brannen Searcy & Smith in Savannah stated, "It is rare that the little guy wins." One attorney referring to Mr. Calhoun representing himself, said, "It is amazing that one so grossly under represented won in the United States Court of Appeals against one so grossly overly represented." The Court that is next higher is the Supreme Court of The United States.