I have a dream, $uch as it i$.

[cannon_fodder]

Martin Luther King Jr's children charge each time his "I Have A Dream" or any other words or likeness is used.  When the History Channel runs a special on King and wants to show the speech, they pay.  When USA Today runs the speech each MLK day, they pay.  When a NATIONAL MONUMENT is built in Washington DC for MLK, they charge $800,000 for the privilege of using his words and likeness.  But they are not charging a licensing fee on the statue of King at said monument, which is nice.

"I don't think the Jefferson family, the Lincoln family ... I don't think any other group of family ancestors has been paid a licensing fee for a memorial in Washington," said Cambridge University historian David Garrow, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of King. "One would think any family would be so thrilled to have their forefather celebrated and memorialized in D.C. that it would never dawn on them to ask for a penny."

King would have been "absolutely scandalized by the profiteering behavior of his children," Garrow said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KING_MEMORIAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-04-18-01-23-53

[nathanm]

Charging the history channel or USA Today is one thing, for they are profit-making entities. They run the program or the speech not out of some sense of altruism or social conscience, but because they think it will bring in more eyeballs, which means more money.

Charging for a bona fide historical monument is just crass.

[TeeDub]

Charging the history channel or USA Today is one thing, for they are profit-making entities. They run the program or the speech not out of some sense of altruism or social conscience, but because they think it will bring in more eyeballs, which means more money.

Charging for a bona fide historical monument is just crass.

That sounds like you are a racist!    Don't you know the black man never gets his due?

[nathanm]

That sounds like you are a racist!    Don't you know the black man never gets his due?

Darn, TeeDub, you found me out. I think I'd better slink home in shame now.