Quote the famous “I have a dream” line from Martin Luther King’s Mall speech, and you’re probably okay.
Show the same brief snipped on TV, and it’s no problem.
Print the speech as a whole? Or broadcast it completely — or even substantially — and the King family lawyers will sue the snot out of you. Unless you pay a licensing fee.
See, King’s speech — and most of his papers — are copyrighted. That the speech he wrote was delivered publically, and was a major news and historical event, seems to make no difference — it’s considered a creative work, and the family aims to keep it that way, accruing some $10MM a year in licensing fees via Time-Warner.
USA Today discovered this when it reprinted the full text of the “I Have a Drea-” oops, I mean The Famous Speech On The Mall – and was sued for copyright infringement.
Gannett, which owns the paper, settled out of court for $1,700, plus legal fees.
Then CBS, whose cameras captured King delivering the speech live on Aug. 28, 1963, was sued. Its mistake was including excerpts from its archives in its documentary series, “The 20th Century with Mike Wallace.”
CBS settled the case before it went to trial.
Harry Hampton, producer of the marvelous series on the civil rights era “Eyes on the Prize” was sued by the Kings, and settled for an amount “under $100,000,” according to news accounts.
And so fewer and fewer people are likely to know much more of one of the most famous speeches — and influential speakers — of the late 20th Century, beyond the same canned footage of four words.
Which hardly seems conducive toward promoting that Dream in the first place.
(via BoingBoing)