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

from the sadness dept

Mon, Jan 16th 2012 3:05pm — Mike Masnick

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.

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

21 Comments

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BeachBumCowboy, 16 Jan 2012 @ 3:15pm

A dream
"Paid at last! Paid at last! thank God Almighty, we are paid at last!"
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- 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."
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Kevin H (profile), 16 Jan 2012 @ 3:35pm

I would imagine that you would receive your bill for mentioning his name by Friday.
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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.
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- 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.
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  - 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?
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Larry, 16 Jan 2012 @ 6:00pm

Shit, I'm a white guy, so obviously, I have nothing to say.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2012 @ 6:49pm
  
  Re:
  To talk about black issues one needs to be of the right color?
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  - 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.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2012 @ 12:16pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Yes, otherwise what you say can only be racist!
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- 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.
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  - btrussell (profile), 16 Jan 2012 @ 8:09pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Another reason the Internet cannot fail.
    
    There is no colour.
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    - ltlw0lf (profile), 17 Jan 2012 @ 1:52pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Another reason the Internet cannot fail.
      
      There is no colour.
      
      Spoken like a 0xFFFFFF guy!
      
      /joke
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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?
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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.
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- 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!
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2012 @ 7:36am

because they're probably too bloody bone idle to go to work and earn for themselves!!
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- abc gum, 17 Jan 2012 @ 5:26pm
  
  Re:
  or they listened to the lawyers
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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.
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- 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.
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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.
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