Estate Of Martin Luther King, Jr. Inc. v. Cbs, Inc.

194 F.3d 1211 (11th Cir. 1999)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

On August 28, 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) held the March on Washington (March) to promote the growing civil rights movement. The events of the day were seen and heard by some 200,000 people gathered at the March and were broadcast live via radio and television to a nationwide audience of millions of viewers. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the SCLC's founder, and president gave a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The Speech contained the famous utterance, 'I have a dream …,' which became symbolic of the civil rights movement. The SCLC had sought out wide press coverage of the March and the Speech, and these efforts were successful; the Speech was reported in daily newspapers across the country, was broadcast live on radio and television, and was extensively covered on television and radio subsequent to the live broadcast. On September 30, 1963, Dr. King took steps to secure federal copyright protection for the Speech under the Copyright Act of 1909, and a certificate of registration of his claim to copyright was issued by the Copyright Office on October 2, 1963. Almost immediately thereafter, Dr. King filed suit to enjoin the unauthorized sale of recordings of the Speech and won a preliminary injunction on December 13, 1963. Dr. King and P enjoyed copyright protection in the Speech and licensed it for a variety of uses, and renewed the copyright when necessary. In 1994, D entered into a contract with the Arts & Entertainment Network to produce a historical documentary series entitled 'The 20th Century with Mike Wallace.' One segment was devoted to 'Martin Luther King, Jr. and The March on Washington.' The episode contained material filmed by D during the March and extensive footage of the Speech (amounting to about 60% of its total content). D did not seek P's permission. P sued D for infringement. The district court held that Dr. King's 'performance coupled with such wide and unlimited reproduction and dissemination as occurred concomitant to Dr. King's speech during the March on Washington can be seen only as a general publication which thrust the speech into the public domain.' D’s motion for summary judgment was issued. P appealed.