MLK Jr’s Estate Charges Academics $50 Per Sentence to Reprint “I Have a Dream” Speech

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That’s one of the more outrageous examples of “Intellectual Property Run Amok” that I put together last year. (Source: McLeod, Kembrew. Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity, Doubleday: 2005.)

THE CLASSIC civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize can’t be aired or sold because much of its archival footage is copyrighted. (This has since been resolved, read letter to that effect here.)

AFTER ROSA PARKS sued OutKast for using her name as a song title, the group and their label settled by paying for a Parks tribute CD and TV special.

THE VILLAGE PEOPLE refused to let their songs be used for a documentary called Gay Sex in the ’70s because they want to be thought of as “mainstream.”

Not all the examples are related to Civil Rights, but they’re all loony. Read the whole thing here. Sources here.