A Copyright Nightmare

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Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 17, 2012 @09:15AM from the what's-75-years-between-friends dept.

New submitter forkfail writes "If further proof were needed that copyright law was out of control in the U.S., it can be found in the fact that it costs 10 dollars to view Martin Luther King's famous Dream Speech. You might think you could find it on YouTube or other public venues, given its importance in American history. But no — the rights are firmly locked away until 2038."

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Part of a money conflict within the King family by elrous0 · 2012-01-17 09:15 · Score: 5, Informative

This is just part of a larger, really nasty conflict which has been going on within the King family since Coretta King's death. While deaths should ideally bring families together, they probably more often tear them apart (as petty old grudges and sibling rivalries find new expression in the debate over disposition of the estate)--ESPECIALLY when money is involved.
In short Dexter King was sued by his sister Bernice and brother Martin Luther King III over Coretta King's estate after she died. Then he countersued. They later settled, but the copyright on those speeches was one of the most valuable financial assets they fought over in those lawsuits (which they divided up amongst the siblings). In short, the settlement requires that these speeches be treated as financial resources and treated as such.
Money and greed trumped morality as the vultures descended.

--
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
1. Re:Part of a money conflict within the King family by elrous0 · 2012-01-17 09:20 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Here is a pretty good article on the lawsuits.
  
  --
  SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
2. Re:Part of a money conflict within the King family by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-17 09:56 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
  
  Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
  
  But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
  
  In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  
  It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
  
  It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
  
  But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
  
  We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their fr
3. Re:Part of a money conflict within the King family by similar_name · 2012-01-17 09:58 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I Have A Dream
ooooooh yes you can by Bananatree3 · 2012-01-17 09:20 · Score: 5, Informative

You might think you could find it on YouTube or other public venues, given its importance in American history. But no...
oohhh but yes! You Can! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
1. Re:ooooooh yes you can by Sqr(twg) · 2012-01-17 10:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  No I can't. When I click on that link, I get this: "Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights. Sorry about that."
  This one seems to work, though. It may not be legal in all countries, but I'm fairly sure King made his speech for people to listen to it, not to make money.
I don't get it.... by RobinEggs · 2012-01-17 09:22 · Score: 5, Informative

So we all know some of the King family have become money grubbing pricks equaled only by the Tolkien estate, and it doesn't surprise me that they want the speech behind paywalls, but this video of the speech has been on youtube for just short of a year.

So how is it impossible to view the speech without giving the Kings $10?
MLK Jr. himself sued to prevent use of his speech by nsanders · 2012-01-17 09:28 · Score: 5, Informative

It isn't just his family who has turned this into a nightmare, MLK Jr. himself started the whole issue:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/mlk_speech/
Furthermore, it appears this wasn't simply a response to someone else trying to publish and profit from his address, it sounds like he claimed copyright a mere month after he gave the speech
From (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-pasternack/i-have-a-dream-copyright_b_944784.html):
"Also crucial in the estate’s copyright claims: though King himself claimed copyright of the speech a whole month after he delivered it, his claim was seen as valid because no “tangible” copy of the speech had been distributed before he made his claim. (The ruling was based on previous copyright law, from 1909, not the 1975 law we use today.)"
Not just his family by DesScorp · 2012-01-17 09:44 · Score: 4, Informative

We can't just lay this at the feet of King's family. King himself... in his lifetime... jealously guarded his copyrights.

--
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Re:"I have a dream ......" by interkin3tic · 2012-01-17 09:49 · Score: 4, Informative

I'm going to take your word that was in the speech, since it would cost me $10 to look it up.
Re:MLK Jr. himself sued to prevent use of his spee by T.E.D. · 2012-01-17 10:14 · Score: 4, Informative

I heard an interview on NPR with MLK's lawyer about this a year or two ago. He claimed that he not only put a copyright notice on the speech immediately (in those quaint times you had to do that to get a copyright), but when MLK changed the speech on the podium a bit, he made sure the press was released a copyright version of the new modified text.
It actually made quite a bit of sense at the time. Everybody knew even at the time it was going to be a historic speech, and this prevented anybody else from profiting off of reproducing it without giving the author a cut. Considering what he was engaged in doing at the time, it would be tough to come up with a more noble use of existing copyright law.
The problem comes nearly 50 years later, when the author is long dead, has his own frigging monument on the mall in DC, and this speech inarguably belongs in the Public Domain. Yet it isn't, and may never be if trends continue.
Re:Dup by dissy · 2012-01-17 11:02 · Score: 4, Informative

Not only is it a dupe, but it's just as incorrect then as it is now.
Jan 20th, 2011 - MLK's speech, uploaded to youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
Aug 29th 2011 - First slashdot article claiming the above doesn't exist,
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/08/29/1728259/The-Copyright-Nightmare-of-I-Have-a-Dream
Jan 17 2012 - Second slashdot article claiming the above doesn't exist.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/01/17/1955257/a-copyright-nightmare
Knowing slashdot, there will be one more dupe in a few months, about 7 days before the youtube video really is taken down, and afterward there will be no further mention of it here :/
P.S. Soulkill posted both of the stories as well
Copy available from archive.org by ckthorp · 2012-01-17 11:12 · Score: 3, Informative

I know copyright is widely considered broken, but the speech is available to listen to here: http://www.archive.org/details/MLKDream
Re:Nein. by CrimsonAvenger · 2012-01-17 11:14 · Score: 4, Informative

This is just part of a larger, really nasty conflict which has been going on within the King family since Coretta King's death.
Who cares? That ought to be irrelevant. Copyright should not extend as long (or longer than) 70 years in the first place.
Hmm, "I have a dream" speech, 1963. 70 years after that would be 2033. So it would still be under Copyright.
If we drop back to the version of Copyright that was in use at the time (28+28), it would be under copyright protection until 2019. So it would still be under copyright.
We'd have to drop back to the Copyright Act of 1831 to find a version (28+14) that would have removed it from copyright before today (in 2005)....

--

"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Not quite correct by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-17 19:45 · Score: 4, Informative

As said in other post, MLK himself claimed copyright, and he could do it, because under the 1909 law as long as no physical media (paper) is distributed the speech was not per see public. Strange but that is the fact.