You need a license to quote Martin Luther King Jr.

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's immortal speech
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. I'd like to quote
from the speech, but I hesitate to even mention its title, since I leave
myself open to a lawsuit.
The King family, you see, holds a copyright on the 1963 speech along with
most of MLK's papers, writings, and images.
Publish or use these without permission and you likely will find yourself
receiving correspondence from the family's lawyers, which begins: "You have
been sued in court."
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.
The King family has said it's protecting the image of the great civil rights
leader from hucksters with crass gift shop proposals like refrigerator
magnets, MLK ice cream and pocketknives, according to Slate, a Web magazine.
Yet, the family approved "Keep the Dream Alive" personal checks and a
"tasteful" King statuette available from the King Center in Atlanta.
Even so, it's hard not to empathize with the King family.
The King children were small when James Earl Ray murdered their father in
1968. King was not a wealthy man. When he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964,
he donated the $54,000 prize money to civil rights groups.
Only the most hardened heart would begrudge King's survivors the licensing
deal they have with Time Warner, which reaps them about $10 million a year.
Still, the complete commodification of a modern prophet is cheesy.
And, despite son Dexter King's assertion that the Time Warner deal helps
spread King's message far and wide through all kinds of media, well, I doubt
it. In fact, it works against it.
The family's vigorous enforcement of copyright protections and heavy
restrictions on King's personal papers have driven away researchers, writers
and scholars who either can't afford or who refuse to pay the royalties the
family demands, according to a story published on CNN's Web site.
In a rare interview on the subject, Dexter King told The New York Times: "It
has nothing to do with greed. It has to do with the principle if you make a
dollar, I should make a dime."
While he's making all those dimes, he should consider this: A quarter
million people stood on the Washington mall as King delivered his speech. It
was seen live on TV by 80 million Americans. Each January we celebrate
Martin Luther King Day and are reminded of his "dream."
And yet, as famous as that event is, most of what King said that day is
largely unknown.
If you read King's text, it sends chills not only because of the beauty of
phrasing, but also because a lone man speaking truth to mighty power is so
biblical.
America would reap the whirlwind, he warned. Revolt is here. A new militancy
has emboldened black Americans. Racial injustice must be ended immediately,
not gradually.
But today, for a news network to broadcast much more than the old reliable
touchy-feely snippets of the 16-minute speech, it will cost money, lest they
violate the family's copyright privilege. You want more than a couple of
stock lines from the speech? Licensing fees start at $2,000.
If King remains a one-dimensional grainy black-and-white figure who utters
the same sunny sound bite year after year until it's a cliche, it's because
news networks won't pay for more, and researchers have been kept from
delving deep into his papers to tell us something new about the Martin
Luther King the man, not the statuette.
And his family wants it that way.

by: J.D. Mullane (can be reached at 215.949.5745 or at
. His column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.)
--
Scout
"Knowing the storm is coming only makes me more nervous."

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 08:25:54 -0400, Scout wrote:

You need a license to quote Martin Luther King Jr.

This speech has been through years of court cases to determine, in various
jurisdictions, whether it was ever copyrighted, and the United States
court system recently laid down their rulings that this speech had never
been copyrighted, since at that time it was required to post a copyright
notice on printed copies to be distributed, and this speech was
distributed without such an extra (C) Copyright notice as was then
required in the US. The US revised this law in 1989, an no longer requires
such notice.

From: http://www.intuitive.com/library/IHaveADream.shtml

That's pretty sad on all counts.

--=20
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