Quote:
Originally Posted by WilliamVitka
It's not for profit, you aren't passing it off as your own work, and the speeches are of historical record/note, so I don't think you're going to have a problem.
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Technically speaking, none of that makes any difference (other than reducing the damages awarded if you get sued and lose). If they're copyrighted, they're copyrighted. Educational uses can
sometimes be fair use, but a) not always, and almost never if the material is quoted in its entirety, and b) it can easily cost $100k in legal fees to find out.
Whether or not MLK's speeches are still copyrighted is not obvious. They can be, but given when they were written, they would have had to be registered in the first place, and renewed at the appropriate time. Given that there seems to be an entity that is responsible for controlling the estate, it's best to ask.