“The speech, which won’t be in the public domain until 2038, can only be used if a commercial entity pays the King estate a hefty fee,” writes Mark Leiser at The Drum. Nick Gillespie at Reason: “[Martin Luther] King had not copyrighted the text before delivering several versions of it or before his assassination; his family secured the copyright after his death.”
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“[Martin Luther] King had not copyrighted the text before delivering several versions of it or before his assassination; his family secured the copyright after his death.”
That’s not quite right. While they may have sought registration, I don’t know if the did, King himself filed suit for copyright infringement related to recording of the speech. See King v. Mister Maestro, Inc., 224 F. Supp. 101, 102 (S.D.N.Y. 1963)
And there, ladies, gentlemen, and others, is the perfect illustration of what is wrong with the “civil rights” movement today.
Isn’t the “Justice for Trayvon” slogan copyrighted as well? Money talks …
[…] of MLK’s historic “I have a dream speech.” The excellent Walter Olson of overlawyered.com asks, “Did you know MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech is copyrighted?” It […]
In her final declining years, Rosa Parks fell into the hands of an IP troll. Her family were appalled to see IP lawsuits filed in her name, eg against a rap singer.
Thank goodness for the hefty fee. to air the MKL speech It greatly reduced its replay, which became a nuisance.
By the way, the wonderful line in MKL speech of wanting his children to be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character implies indirectly that his children would be better off thereby. Actually that isn’t true. King’s son Dexter is a jackass as evinced by his hugging James Earl Ray.
When government asserted itself in hiring it was found that Blacks were given preference, that is test used by HR departments over-predicted the subsequent performance on the job. The reaction was to throw out judging by character and put in skin color affirmative action.