How IP Laws Have Locked Up Martin Luther King's Brilliance

from the sadness dept

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- and there are many reasons to celebrate his legacy. But one thing that should not be celebrated is what his heirs have done with his words ever since. In the past, we've discussed how his heirs have done everything they can to try to use intellectual property laws to lock up MLK Jr.'s legacy -- and set up a toll booth to charge anyone for making use of them in any way, shape or form. The most recent episode of On The Media explored this... and also talked about how most of King's speeches were actually built off the works of others, but then (obviously) turned into something much more powerful through his detailed study and understanding of how to preach. It's a fascinating story... made ridiculously annoying by his heirs' desire to lock up and charge for King's legacy.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: copyright, legacy, locked up, martin luther king jr.


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    BeachBumCowboy, 16 Jan 2012 @ 3:15pm

    A dream

    "Paid at last! Paid at last! thank God Almighty, we are paid at last!"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      MrWilson, 16 Jan 2012 @ 3:56pm

      Re: A dream

      "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their bank accounts and investment portfolios."

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Kevin H (profile), 16 Jan 2012 @ 3:35pm

    I would imagine that you would receive your bill for mentioning his name by Friday.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    jakerome (profile), 16 Jan 2012 @ 3:40pm

    Travesty

    No matter what they say, no matter what they claim, it's clear that Dr. King's heirs are more concerned with profiting from his vision that expanding the reach of his vision. That Eyes on the Prize has been virtually sent down the memory is but the most egregious example. More pernicious are the thousands of documentaries that can't be made due to the Chilling Effects of harmful copyright laws that threaten bankruptcy on any organ that funds or creates non fiction accounts of our country's history.

    Even though the use of these clips is almost certainly Fair Use under any rational adjudication, threats of fines in the tens of millions have forced producers to grovel at the feet of lazy heirs that seek only to extract monopoly rents for history that belongs to all of us, equally.

    That Dr. King's heirs claim to protect his legacy while selling clips of his famous speech for wireless ads while documentaries and news programs that seek to educate the nation's citizens are forced to do without is beyond shameful. That his greedy heirs seek to monetize the holiday created for one of our nation's true giants harms not only the memory of a great man but also impugns the holiday in his honor. Instead of all being able to celebrate his legacy as Dr. King would have no doubt wanted, the misguided heirs have set up toll booths and diminished Dr. King's legacy as his words no longer ring out from mountaintops.

    Free at last. Free at last. When the public domain returns, Dr. King will be free at last.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2012 @ 6:54pm

      Re: Travesty

      Well at least in greedy everybody is equal on this world, it doesn't matter the color of your skin, religion or sexual orientation greed is something that transcends all barriers.

      This should be a warning to future leaders that care about humanity to not make a will transferring everything they did to the public domain after their death or have others twist their legacy into something else entirely.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2012 @ 7:17pm

        Re: Re: Travesty

        "to not make a will transferring everything they did to the public domain after their death"

        Eh, what? Dr King's will put everything he did into the public domain? Citation needed. If true, then surely that would stop his heirs from charging. So, how come they can still charge?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Larry, 16 Jan 2012 @ 6:00pm

    Shit, I'm a white guy, so obviously, I have nothing to say.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2012 @ 6:49pm

      Re:

      To talk about black issues one needs to be of the right color?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        jakerome (profile), 16 Jan 2012 @ 8:00pm

        Re: Re:

        This is a call back to the Comment of the Week™ where a person asked why Reddit cares about SOPA when it (falsely) claims to only effects foreign sites.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2012 @ 12:16pm

        Re: Re:

        Yes, otherwise what you say can only be racist!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2012 @ 6:55pm

      Re:

      If you have to worry about the color of your skin to say something Martin Luther King failed.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    abc gum, 16 Jan 2012 @ 9:00pm

    It's bad enough one needs to pay (is it $10 or $20 us ??) to experience this historical speech, but as of 2009, the British music publishing conglomerate EMI Publishing, owns the copyright of the speech and its recorded performance.
    http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/1/16/copyright-king-why-the-i-have-a-dream-speech-sti ll-isn-t-free

    Is this indeed fact?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Machin Shin (profile), 17 Jan 2012 @ 5:21am

    Oh come on now! Don't you see how this copyright is inspiring people to put out new works!

    Oh wait, the guy who was producing those works has been dead for years.

    So ummm, why does copyright last so long again? I sure don't see it motivating the "owners" to make anything new and the original content creator is not going to make anything new.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      btrussell (profile), 17 Jan 2012 @ 5:59am

      Re:

      "Oh come on now! Don't you see how this copyright is inspiring people to put out new works!"

      Or old works!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2012 @ 7:36am

    because they're probably too bloody bone idle to go to work and earn for themselves!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Elder-Geek, 17 Jan 2012 @ 10:26am

    Payoff

    I don't have a reference. But one of MLK heirs was talking yesterday about how it is wrong that business have sales on MLK day and should be required to pay 10% of their sales on that day to their foundation.

    It is sad to see 2 generations of that family feel that they have the right to freeload off of one speech. That they should never have to work a job, be competent or do anything to contribute to society because they had a relative give an awesome speech over 40 years ago.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      abc gum, 17 Jan 2012 @ 5:36pm

      Re: Payoff

      Charging to listen to the historically famous speech is beyond ridiculous and should be ridiculed.

      However, just because one person in a group says something stupid does not, in the absence of evidence, mean they all are guilty of same.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dick MacInnis, 17 Jan 2012 @ 1:52pm

    I have a dream

    Judging MLK's heirs solely on the "content of their character": they're greedy, entitled, opportunistic scum.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.