Usually, whenever a speech is broadcast to a large audience, it’d be up on YouTube within seconds. What isn’t on YouTube these days? Free country! Free speech! Or something like that.
But in 1999, a court ruled that the speech was “a performance distributed to the news media and not the public, making it a ‘limited’ as opposed to a ‘general’ publication.” And because “performances” were not part of the public domain, MLK and his family had the rights to claim copyright. That’s why it’s hard to find full audio or video of the magnificent speech on YouTube. Or any other video sharing service for that matter. Of course, people can still use excerpts of the speech under “fair use” but nobody really knows the limits of that fair use until they get a letter in the mail asking for a licensing fee. (USA Today was ordered to pay a $US1700 licensing fee).
MLK’s family control the rights to “I Have a Dream” until 2038. You can read the entire “copyright nightmare” of ‘I Have a Dream’ at Motherboard. [Motherboard.tv]
olearymo
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 8:42 AMWell that’s a shame. While I respect their decision, I think it’s a real shame.
mango
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 9:14 AMhearing about all these copyright infringement going on with samsung and apple just sickens me, but this has the be the worst of them all. i respect MLK’s family for their decision, but his speech is something that should be in the public domain and freely available to anyone, because this man was just as important as gandhi!
Mike
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 9:59 AMDo you think Martin Luther King wanted his speech bottled up, “protected” somewhere? No, he wanted it played to the masses, for all to hear.
Its their legal right, but its money-grabbing, and its wrong.
If they really cared about what he was trying to do that day, they’d give it away freely, just as he did.
Deb
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 12:07 PMMaybe they’re trying to protect it from being misused by people, but still..
Nathan
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 1:36 PMMLKs family also sued to get money on his likeness for a statue built in his honour. Greedy if you ask me.
Pat Cahill
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 1:42 PMA speech delivered from the steps of the Lincoln, a public building, to 200’000 people which filled the National Mall, a public space about about 2 kilometres long from the steps to the Washington Monument, but its a limited performance to the media. And politicians wonder why people have lost faith in the system.
ExplosionsHurt
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 9:40 PMSo that’s why I couldn’t find the speech. Damn.