I have a dream/Talk

Is this speech actually in the public domain? Wasn't there a legal dispute over the question of the copyright status of this speech, and if so, who knows for sure what the current status is?

I know for sure, and I know for sure that it is not only under copyright but also that his heirs are vicious about protecting it. Deleted.

Thats a shame. I guess there are some places freedom just won't ring... GWO

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In [King vs. CBS], the district court ruled that the speech was in the public domain, because King's speech (and his prior dissemination of it to the press) was a "general publication without notice", which, under the then-existing 1909 copyright act, placed the work in the public domain (today, no notice is required for copyright). King's estate appealed, and the circuit court [reversed and remanded], finding the trial court's order of summary judgment invalid, but not specificially ruling on the validity of the copyright claim. King's estate and CBS reached a settlement that granted CBS the right to use the speech in certain ways in exchange for CBS donating to the King Center for Non-violent Social Change, and so this particular case will not be taken to final judgment, leaviing the issue up in the air. King's estate is pretty liberal about permission to reproduce the speech, so there are places on the net to which we can point for the full text. But we cannot put the actual text here, because even if the King family allowed us to display it, they would not allow us to re-license it under the GFDL, which is required for use here. --LDC