Today is a day set aside to reflect on the ideology of Dr. Martin Luther King. A great American who transformed our country from a mindset of segregation into a nation of equalization. Dr. King had a dream. It's a dream that is still not fulfilled but the passion of his dream still burns brightly in our country today.

One of Dr. King's most stunning attributes was his ability to use the spoken word to motivate millions into seeking a better way. His most famous speech occurred on August 28, 1966, in Washington D.C. It was the famous I Have A Dream speech.

While it's one of our nation's most important speeches it does not belong to we the people. In fact, the rights to the speech and any proceeds made from licensing the speech are retained by the King Family.

To be fair, the King Family does not enforce these copyright laws when the speech is used by teachers or educators wanting to share the message of Dr. King. However, there have been instances where filmmakers have been denied the right to use the speech in the films because the King Family did not grant permission.

This is where Michael Jackson comes into the picture. Or I should more accurately state the estate of Michael Jackson comes into the picture

Because the speech was not 'published' in a traditional way, courts have ruled that video and audio of King's famous oration belongs to the King family and to its rights protector, the London-based company EMI Music Publishing, which is the largest music publisher in the world. (Because of a 2011 acquisition of EMI from Citigroup, the speech is technically in the legal possession of Sony Music Publishing, the Estate of Michael Jackson, Jynwel Capital of Hong Kong, the Blackstone Group, David Geffen, and the Mubadala Development Company, which is the government of Abu Dhabi's investment arm.

That passage was taken from a story reported on NOLA.com and Times-Picayune. They credit their source as Motherboardvice.com. 

It truly is a crazy world once you let the lawyers get involved isn't it? One of the greatest speeches in American history is now owned by a Japanese company.  Somehow I don't think that this how Dr. King would have wanted his dream for our country to be shared.

 

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