KING ESTATE AND CBS SETTLE SUIT OVER RIGHTS TO FAMOUS SPEECH
Issue: Intellectual Property
Some years ago, CBS began selling a video collection, "The 20th Century with
Mike Wallace," that included footage from Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a
Dream" speech. Dr. King's family which has long been criticized by scholars
for its aggressive profit-making approach to Dr. King's legacy, argued that
outside corporations should not be allowed to exploit Dr. King's memory
without giving a share to the estate. "It has to do with the principle that
if you make a dollar, I should make a dime," said Dexter Scott King, Dr.
King's son and president of the estate, in 1997. After years of dispute, the
two sides have settled on an agreement which includes CBS making a
tax-deductible contribution to the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change,
in Atlanta. (Amount undisclosed) Both sides feel victorious. "From CBS's
perspective, this has always been about the principle that they have right
to use footage they take of news events," said the network's lawyer, Floyd
Abrams. "From their vantage point, that principle remains inviolate, and is
consistent with this resolution."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A12), AUTHOR: David Firestone]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/071400atl-king.html)
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