## Facts

- Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a new and substantially longer address for the March on Washington and delivered it on August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial.
- The speech incorporated some elements from an earlier Detroit speech but included substantial new material.
- On the morning of delivery, King provided the speech text (substantially as delivered) to March on Washington press personnel; copies were made available shortly before delivery for press use in reporting the event.
- The speech was delivered to a large public audience and broadcast live on radio and television.
- Mister Maestro, Inc. and 20th Century-Fox Record Corp. recorded the speech and manufactured and sold phonograph records containing it without King’s authorization.
- In early September 1963, King obtained copyright registration for the speech by depositing copies of the text with the Copyright Office.
- King sued for injunctive relief, damages, and an accounting, and moved for a preliminary injunction to stop sales of the records pending final adjudication.

## Issues

1. Whether public delivery of the speech to a mass audience and contemporaneous radio/television broadcast constituted a general publication that divested King of protection in the speech text.
2. Whether furnishing advance copies to the press for news reporting constituted a general publication or abandonment of rights.
3. Whether King showed entitlement to a preliminary injunction against defendants’ manufacture and sale of phonograph records of the speech.

## Decision

- The court granted King’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
- The court held that oral delivery and live broadcast of the speech did not amount to a general publication of the text.
- The court held that distributing copies to the press for news reporting was, at most, a limited publication and did not destroy King’s rights.
- The court found a likelihood that defendants’ commercial records infringed King’s protected rights and that injunctive relief was warranted pending final resolution.

## Legal Principles

- Public performance or oral delivery of a speech, even to a very large audience and via widespread broadcast, does not by itself constitute a general publication of the speech text.
- Distribution of copies to a limited class for a restricted purpose (such as accurate news reporting) is a limited publication and does not dedicate the work to the public or terminate protected rights.
- Any implied permission arising from allowing news coverage and broadcasting is confined to reporting and broadcast as news and does not extend to separate commercial exploitation, such as manufacturing and selling sound recordings.
- Preliminary injunctive relief is appropriate where the plaintiff shows probable success on infringement and irreparable injury from unauthorized commercial exploitation that is difficult to quantify.

## Conclusion

The court enjoined the defendants’ sale of phonograph records of King’s speech because the speech had not been generally published by its public delivery or press access, the press distribution was limited to news use, and the defendants’ unauthorized commercial recordings were likely infringing and threatened irreparable harm.


King v. Mister Maestro, Inc., 224 F. Supp. 101 (S.D.N.Y. 1963)